Gibson Southern’s boys swim team grabbed a fourth place finish in Sectional 20 on Saturday,  Feb. 18. Preliminary races were on Friday, Feb. 16. The Titans were outmatched by Castle, Evansville North and Evansville Reitz Memorial. The top team at the meet and the top individual in each event advanced to the state meet, along with anyone achieving a state cut time. Junior Dawson Maurer tied for first place in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.76 seconds. Maurer swam in the State meet this past Saturday on Feb. 25. 

“The state meet is much different than regular season meets,” Maurer said. “There are a lot more swimmers, and a lot more fast swimmers.”

Maurer also qualified for the state meet in the 2021-2022 season. However, in 2022, he advanced in the 100-yard freestyle, not the 50. 

“It was a lot easier to make it out of Sectional and onto state in the 50 free than the 100,” Maurer said. “I liked it more because it is a shorter race and not as difficult. Making it to State again was my main goal this season.” 

Maurer placed 20th in the State meet with a time of 21.61, which was a new school record. 

“This season I wanted to create a fun and challenging environment, challenge the swimmers to swim different events and help more kids get through to the finals at PAC and Sectional,” said Gibson Southern’s head swim coach Erin Maurer. 

Eleven Titans competed in the preliminary races on Thursday and eight of them scored in the top 16 in their events to advance to the Sectional finals. Sophomore Jake Richter placed sixth in the 50-yard freestyle behind Maurer. 

“I feel that I improved more than I ever thought I would this season,” Richter said. “I dropped 2.27 seconds in the 50 this year and 8.31 seconds in the 100. Our relays also dropped a lot of time, and we broke our record almost every time we swam.”

Titan swimmers Maurer, Richter, freshman Owen Mercer and senior Lucas Lingafelter competed in the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relays. They broke their own school record in both events with times of 1:30.27 for 4th place and 3:24.96 for 2nd place, respectively. 

“I was pushed very hard by both my teammates and my coaches,” Richter said. “My whole team, especially my relay partners, worked very hard because we knew this might be the last year we could break all of our records. Our coach really talked us into putting forth our best effort during practices, and I am glad she pushed us because it really paid off at Sectional.”