The Herald-Press

BY SEAN GIGGY


Two Huntington North boys’ swimmers will make the trip to the state swimming finals at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis tonight.

One has the experience, the other is going for the first time, but for Skyler Ruschhaupt and Danny Scher, the goal is the same: earning All-State status by finishing in the top-16.

“That [All-State] would be pretty cool because that would just show how hard we’ve been working for our swim career in high school,” says Scher.

“They’ve worked hard all season and obviously their rewards are paying off,” says Huntington North head coach Jennifer Vincent. “I think they’re both very talented individuals and they still have a lot to show us. I’m excited to see the times that they’re going to turn in at state.”

Ruschhaupt and Scher, both juniors, each qualified for the state finals in two events following sectional wins last weekend at Warsaw.

For Ruschhaupt, the journey is familiar. He returns to the state meet in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley hoping to get past the preliminary round and into the finals in both events.

“I’ve been working hard all through the year to try and make it top 16 to state,” says Ruschhaupt. “To do that in both my events, I’ll have to cut at least a second off my times from sectional.”

Ruschhaupt set the school record in the 100 breaststroke as a freshman and he broke it three more times in his sophomore season. His time of 1:01.17 in this year’s sectional broke it once again.

He’s seeded 24th in the state finals.

In the individual medley, each swimmer must swim 50 yards each of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.

Ruschhaupt won the 200 IM at the Warsaw sectional with a personal best finish of 1:58.80. His goal is to try and break the current record of 1:57.80 set by Jesse Cleaver in 2002. Cleaver was the last individual boys’ swimmer to earn All-State status, doing so three consecutive years.

“I hope to place in the top 16 in at least one of my events, maybe both and break Jesse Cleaver’s record in the 200 IM,” Ruschhaupt says. “I hope to get top 16 in both my events and I can be up [on the Hall of Fame] with him.”

He is seeded 27th in the 200 IM.

Scher is making his first trip to the state finals following sectional wins in the 50 free and 100 free.

Scher won the 50 free by breaking the school record, which he set earlier this season, in a time of :21.96. He’s seeded 27th in the state finals, but with the winner and last place swimmer rarely being more than a second apart, Scher know anything can happen.

“The 50 will be pretty unpredictable because everybody’s within a second of each other,” Scher says. “I’m just going to block everything else out and think about my race and when the time comes, I’m going to do what I can to stay ahead.”

Scher is seeded 29th in the finals of the 100 free following a PR of

:48.97 in the sectional.

He has put in plenty of work in the offseason, shaving nearly five seconds off his sectional time in the 100 from last year. He knows that he’ll probably need to break Cleaver’s record of :48.45 to advance to Saturday’s final round of state competition.

“I’ve been putting in quite a lot [of work],” Scher says. “My team’s been pretty supportive and they’ve pushed me to be what I am now. Hopefully I can improve in this last week.”

“The dedication, both swimming during season and out of season has really paid off,” Vincent says. I know that they’ve both been swimming year round and that’s really helped both of them continue to improve on it in the season and be peaking right when they need to.”

The top 16 swimmers in Friday’s preliminary round will advance to the semifinals Saturday at 9 a.m. The top eight will compete for the state title that afternoon.