Depth carries boys swim team to first win over Findlay in four years; girls also roll past Trojans

FREMONT – The Ross boys swim team did something Tuesday night it hadn’t done in four years: Beat Findlay in a duel meet. The Little Giants topped their rival thanks to a depth the Trojans simply couldn’t match.

“They’re down a little bit this year, they had a big graduating class and we’re going to be dealing with that next year,” boys swim coach Phil Moran said. “It’s nice to beat them. We lost by a couple points three years ago, and two years ago we lost by a couple points, and last year they hammered us pretty good. It kind of goes in an ebb and flow, sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down.”

The boys took the meet victory by a score of 114-69. Like the boys, the Lady Giants also remained perfect in duel meets, winning their match by a margin of 126-60.

“(Findlay was) definitely stronger in the front half (of the meet),” Moran said. “It was a strong performance from our kids, they stepped up. We want great times but, sometimes, it’s just as important to beat the kid on either side of you. If you beat the guy on your right and on your left, you’re going to win the meet.”

Dylan Weisenauer picked up a pair of victories for Ross, finishing first in the 100 butterfly (53.48) and the 100 backstroke (55.50), as did Andrew Evans whose times of 22.89 and 47.76 earned him wins in the 50 and 100 freestyles.

Mitchell Mullholand also had a busy, but productive night, winning the 200 and 500 freestyles (times of 1:55.30 and 5:05.03) and also swam legs in both the 200 and 400 relays, both of which also won their events.

Tate Williams rounded out Ross’ winners, clocking a 1:06.88 in the 100 breaststroke.

“We still had a lot of guys swim their best times of the season,” Moran said. “We had some really good swims, some midseason-best times, not tapered. Ethan Taylor had a good meet. Mitchell Mullholand had a really good meet, especially his splits on the 200 free relay, and the 400, were really big for him.”

While Ross won the majority of events, Moran said the Little Giants’ took the meet thanks to securing more second-, third- and fourth-place points.

“We had some guys step up that got thirds and fourth places for us like Logan Kropp in the 100 free, Noah Hotz stepped up and scored for us with good times,” Moran said. “James Elder had a good meet, dropped some time. Some PRs in the season, non-tapered.

“I went through and I think we had probably 10 to 15 best times for the season, in splits and times all together. It was a good meet.”

As for the girls team, the Lady Giants won all but two events, the 50 free and the diving competition. The rest of the meet belonged to Ross.

The Lady Giants began the meet by taking a sizable lead, taking three of the top four places in the first three events of the night, and continued to roll from there.

The Lady Giants were led by their big four of Olivia DeRodes, MaKennah Fitzgerald, AnneMarie Moses and Alexis Prenzlin, all of whom factored into first-place of every Lady Giant event victory.

DeRodes won the 200 and 500 freestyles. Prenzlin took first in the 200 IM and 100 breatstroke. Fitzgerald won both the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke, while Moses won the 100 butterfly.

The Lady Giants also swept the relays with the medley (Fitzgerald, Prenzlin, Moses and Mara Brown); 200 (DeRodes, Rilee Overmyer, Prenzlin and Moses) and the 400 (Fitzgerald, Brown, Faith Zimmerman and DeRodes).

The swim teams will return to action next Tuesday as they host St. John’s and Notre Dame Academy at 5 p.m.