BOWLING GREEN – A long day at the pool proved productive for the Ross swim teams.
The Giant swimmers hosted a preliminary of the Northwest Ohio Classic at the Hawk-Bucci Natatorium Saturday morning, with warm-ups beginning at 7:15 a.m. Those who qualified for the finals boarded a bus in the afternoon to Bowling Green State University, where they competed until close to 8 p.m., capping a 12-hour day.
The busy day was worth it, however, as out of a field of over 40 schools, Ross’ boys finished with 352 points, good for third place, while the girls amassed 290.5, placing them fourth in their competition.
While both boys coach Phil Moran and girls coach Tina Moses were both satisfied with where their teams finished, they were most pleased to see several of their swimmers either qualify for next weekend’s Ned Reeb Invitational at Ohio State, or lower their seeding time for the meet.
Case Stevenson
“Next week we’ll rest a day or two to swim down in Columbus,” Moran said. “We had some boys swim PRs, had a couple boys qualify for the Ned Reeb meet, swimming in the finals tonight. They weren’t even remotely close to the cut time coming in, they had some big swims to get in, to the qualifying time.”
Case Stevenson’s time of 1:05.79 in the 100 breaststroke punched his ticket to the Ned Reeb, he’d swam 1:11 in Tuesday’s duel meet at Sandusky Perkins. Stevenson was one of three Little Giants to finish in the top 10 in the 100 breaststroke, Tate Williams finished fourth (1:04.35), Stevenson was fifth and Austin Kramer took seventh in 1:05.90.
“That’s kind of a big drop,” Moran said of the six seconds Stevenson shaved off his time to qualify. “That was big for him to get in there.
“We had other boys improve their times so they can get in to the Ned Reeb meet and have a better seeding position.”
The Little Giants had a couple first-place finishes Saturday.
Andrew Evans
Dylan Weisenauer
Andrew Evans broke the 2:00 mark in the 200 individual medley, finishing in a time of 1:59.97, just 0.09 seconds ahead of second place.
“He had to run a kid down, which is unusual because his freestyle leg in the IM is pretty good, he went 32 on his split Tuesday at Perkins’ pool,” Moran said. “Then he went 28 on his split, so he swam four seconds faster just on his 50 free split. That’s the first time he’s ever broken two (minutes) non-tapered and at the end of the season.”
While Evans won his event by a razor-thin margin, Dylan Weisenauer enjoyed a comfortable cushion in winning the 100 butterfly. His first-place time of 52.47 was nearly 2.5 seconds faster than second-place.
“He swam really well in the fly, you could tell he looked very comfortable,” Moran said. “That was a significant margin to win by. That was a nice swim for him. That was faster than he swam last year at state.”
Weisenauer also finished second in the 100 backstroke and second as a part of the 200 medley relay, along with Evans, Tate Williams and William Taylor.
Hayley Wilson
Rachel Haitonic
While the girls’ team didn’t have any first-place finishes, the Lady Giants placed a top-10 finish in every event Saturday. Moses said her team enjoyed its best swims in the preliminary rounds. Hayley Wilson qualified for next weekend’s Ned Reeb meet in the in the 100 breaststroke and Rachel Haitonic dropped 11 seconds in the 500 free to lower her seed time. She finished sixth in the final heat Saturday night.
Freshman Mara Brown qualified in the 50 and 100 freestyles with “significant time drops in both events,” Moses said.
“We had some great swims in prelims,” she said. “I think the highlight for us was the younger girls in prelims making the cut so they can go to the big meet next weekend.”
The girls’ best finishes were a trio of fourth-places. Olivia DeRodes placed fourth in the 50 and 100 freestyles as well as part of the 200 medley relay, along with MaKennah Fitzgerald, Alexis Prenzlin, and AnneMarie Moses.
Mara Brown
Olivia DeRodes
“For this time of season, every one of them came up to me afterward and said they were hurting and were tight, it’s that time of year,” said Tina Moses, herself suffering from a hoarse voice after the long Saturday. “Hopefully next week we’re going to rest a little bit and next weekend we see a little faster swims and they’re more satisfied with where they’re at.”
Northwest Ohio Classic
Girls results
Top-10 finishes:
200 medley relay: 4th, (MaKennah Fitzgerald, Alexis Prenzlin, AnneMarie Moses, Olivia DeRodes), 1:54.21
200 freestyle: 8th, Rachel Haitonic, 2:07.63
200 IM: 9th, Alexis Prenzlin, 2:23.29
50 freestyle: 4th, Olivia DeRodes, 25.5;
100 butterfly: 6th, AnneMarie Moses, 1:01.98
100 freestyle: 4th, Olivia DeRodes, 55.46
500 freestyle: 6th, Rachel Haitonic, 5:36.92
200 freestyle relay: 9th, (Mara Brown, Rilee Overmyer, Alexis Prenzlin, Faith Zimmerman), 1:47.81
100 backstroke: 5th, MaKennah Fitzgerald, 1:02.16
100 breaststroke: 5th, Alexis Prenzlin, 1:09.67; 10th Lauren Zimmerman, 1:12.83
400 freestyle relay: 4th , (MaKennah Fitzgerald, AnneMarie Moses, Faith Zimmerman, Olivia DeRodes), 3:47.66
Boys results
Top-10 finishes:
200 medley relay: 2nd, (Tate Williams, Andrew Evans, Dylan Weisenauer, William Taylor), 1:40.62; 8th (Noah Detrich, Austin Kramer, Ethan Taylor, Mitchell Mullholand), 1:48.59
200 IM: 1st, Andrew Evans, 1:59.97
100 butterfly: 1st; Dylan Weisenauer, 52.47; 10th, William Taylor, 57.18
500 freestyle: 7th, Mitchell Mullholand, 5:02.65
200 freestyle relay: 3rd, (Dylan Weisenauer, William Taylor, Tate Williams, Andrew Evans), 1:32.32
100 backstroke: 2nd, Dylan Weisenauer, 54:02
100 breaststroke: 4th, Tate Williams, 1:04.35; 5th Case Stevenson, 1:05.79; 7th Austin Kramer, 1:05.90
400 freestyle relay: 10th, (Ethan Taylor, Mitchell Mullholand, Austin Kramer, Noah Detrich), 3:33.39