Jefferson won just about everything Tuesday night – except the swim meet.

Battling the Cougars at the Kennedy pool, the J-Hawks swept first place in 10 straight events. The Cougars nipped at their heels the whole night with a battery of second and third places, then raced to first and second place in the final relay to snatch an 86-84 victory.

“The moral of this story is that no matter where we’re at, we always have the mental strength to battle down, know what our strengths are, know what our weaknesses are, and make our strengths shine,” said Kennedy Coach Shawn Thomsen as his team celebrated its third win of the year.

Jefferson was led by its power pack of Kristian Anderson, Jake Inghram, Alex Kleinheinz and Lance Scallon, who won two individual events apiece and joined forces to take two of the three relays.

The J-Hawks led 68-56 late in the meet, but the Cougars churned on.

“We came out a little flat, but that speaks to the mental strength of this group,” Thomsen said of his team’s plucky performance. The Cougars went deep into their roster to score valuable points, sweeping second and third place in seven events.

“There’s lots of way to think about a dual meet, and a lot of times it’s those second, third, fourth, fifth-place swimmers that still score points, and it all adds up in the end,” said Thomsen, noting a few key role players in the Cougars’ exhilarating triumph.

“We had some fantastic swims. Dylan Casey stepped up and swam a solid 200 for the second time this year. Usually he swims the IM. Chandler Heisler swam all three relays, putting himself in a better position to help the team with relay points versus maybe a potential first-place individual finish.”

Heisler, who swam the fastest leg of the event-winning relay, was all smiles as he relaxed after a meet that was a nail-biter until the final lap.

“In the middle of the meet I was kind of nervous, but toward the end I knew we were going to get it. The team did well, so I’m happy.”

The Cougars couldn’t have made a better case that it takes a team to prevail over a cascade of sparkling individuals efforts.

KENNEDY 86, JEFFERSON 84

200 Medley Relay
1. Jefferson (Scanlon, Kleinheinz, Anderson, Inghram) 1:46.27; 2. Kennedy (Richardson, Holmes, Hanson, Heisler) 1:48.97; 3. Kennedy (Schantz, Green, Boomershine, Burstain) 1:55.40.

200 Free
1. Jake Inghram (CRJ) 2:00.15, 2. Dylan Casey (CRK) 2:02.36, 3. Zach Khorsand ((CRJ) 2:02.41.

200 IM
1. Alex Kleinheinz (CRJ) 2:16.05, 2. John Richardson (CRK) 2:21.02, 3. Jack Green (CRK) 2:21.23.

50 Free
1. Lance Scallon (CRJ) 24.00, 2. Harrison Moore (CRK) 24.11, 3. Brandon Holmes (CRK) 24.19.

100 Fly
1. Jake Inghram (CRJ) 1:03.51, 2. Alex Boomershine (CRK) 1:04.71, 3. Grant Batterson (CRK) 1:05.08.

100 Free
1. Kristian Anderson (CRJ) 50.14, 2. Chandler Heisler (CRK) 53.73, 3. Derek Myers (CRJ) 58.00.

500 Free
1. Alex Kleinheinz (CRJ) 5:42.36, 2. Zach Khorsand (CRJ) 5:42.93, 3. Evan Batterson (CRK) 6:02.96.

200 Free Relay
1. Jefferson (Inghram, Scallon, Kleinheinz, Anderson) 1:34.14, 2. Kennedy (Casey, Schantz, Heisler, Holmes) 1:36.15, 3. Kennedy (Green, Crippes, Boomershine, Batterson) 1:42.55.

100 Back
1. Lance Scallon (CRJ) 1:00.98, 2. John Richardson (CRK) 1:03.77, 3. Dylan Casey (CRK) 1:06.01.

100 Breast
1. Kristian Anderson (CRJ) 1:08.36, 2. Brandon Holmes (CRK) 1:13.07, 3. Jack Green (CRK) 1:14.06.

400 Free Relay
1. Kennedy (Batterson, Moore, Heisler, Casey) 3:41.81, 2. Kennedy (Richardson, Hanson, Schantz, Boomershine) 3:50.40, 3. Jefferson (Khorsand, Myers, Bennink, Munson) 3:53.02.