Scotties Make History with 400 Meter Record Breaking Time

It took sixteen years to accomplish but last night it finally happened. Licking County Family YMCA (LCFYMCA) was the site of a three-way swim meet between host Newark High and rivals Heath High and Tri-Valley (Dresden) High. One of just a few ‘meter’ pools in the area, the YMCA competition came down to the final event of the meet, the 400 Meter Boys Relay. Exciting is an understatement.

Tri-Valley swimmers (all Seniors) Keegan Bumpus, Benjamin Jacoby, Chad Bell and Eric Allen had just combined to swim the 200 Meter Boys Relay in a near record time of 1:50.67. As it turned out their time was .01 off the school record of 1:50.66. Near miss.

Not to be detoured, the foursome returned to the blocks to take a shot at the longer 400 Meter Relay. A quick check indicated that that record had been set by the team of Steve Paisley, Devon Liles, Sam Allen and Ed Rector back in 2003. All four swimmers realized that they would each have to swim outstanding legs of the relay to have a chance at the record. “Leave it ALL in the pool” was their motto for this event. As the final swimmer touched the pad all eyes turned to the electric scoreboard.

THEY DID IT…4:07.95, almost 2.5 seconds off the sixteen-year-old Tri-Valley set in 2003

CONGRATULATIONS!!!