Ross’ Andrew Evans chats with St. Francis’ Drew Grespin following Evans’ win in the 100 breaststroke in Saturday’s sectional.
FREMONT – You’re not in Division 2 anymore, pal.
That’s the message Ross senior Andrew Evans sent to Ashland breaststroker Hudson McDaniel.
McDaniel won the 100 breaststroke at the Division 2 state meet last year. But, with Ashland having moved up to Division 1 this year, Evans made sure the previous state champion left Saturday’s sectional meet with a second-place medal.
Evans clocked a time of 58.42 seconds, edging out McDaniel by 0.04 seconds, posting the Little Giants’ only first-place finish of the day.
“I’m very excited, looking forward to next weekend,” Evans said. “Obviously, he’s going to get a lot faster, and we’re hoping to rest down. We’re going to taper and hopefully get a lot faster as well.”
Andrew Evans
Evans and McDaniel haven’t seen the last of each other. They’ll meet again at next week’s district and likely the following week at the state meet as well. Though he knows winning Round 1 guarantees him nothing, Evans admitted winning Saturday gave his confidence a boost.
“A little bit more confident, yeah, I’ll be honest,” Evans said. “It feels good but next week, we’ll see. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Evans also placed fourth in the 200 IM, finished with a time of 2:00.55.
Despite Evans’ win, Ross boys swim coach Phil Moran said the senior swimmer can trim some time – in addition to tapering and wearing a faster suit.
“Every one of his turns he was decelerating big-time, which makes it harder to come off the wall fast,” Moran said. “It’s like taking a tennis ball, throwing it into the wall super-hard and it hits you in the face, or if you roll it into the wall, it bounces around and might not come back. Every time you lose momentum, it kills you.
“(McDaniel), he might win next week, he might not win next week. It counts at state,” Moran added. “That kid will be full boar at state and hopefully we can compete there too.”
Evans’ win may have been Ross’ only first-place finish but it was far from its only quality performance.
Dylan Weisenauer turned in a pair of third-place finishes, in the 100 butterfly (55.73) and 100 backstroke (55.70).
Andrew Evans catches his breath following his victory in the 100 breaststroke in Saturday sectional meet.
Mitchell Mullholand also finished third place with a time of 4:56.63 in the 500 freestyle. He also finished eighth in the 200 freestyle, clocking in with a 1:53.69.
The 200 medley relay team of Weisenauer, Evans, William Taylor and Tate Williams took third in 1:39.96 – a time that Moran has been waiting all season to see.
“The four guys finally swam their best times – three out of the four kids – so closer to their best times on those splits. It’s hard to get four guys to do it all on the same day. We’re getting there,” Moran said.
“That’s faster than the time we had at Ned Reeb wearing tech suits,” Moran said of the medley relay’s time. “So that gives you an idea why we feel good about where we’re at. If we put our suits on next week and taper and rest, we could be in contention to break the school record in that event (1:37.28). It’s very possible.”
Mitchell Mullholand
Dylan Weisenauer
The same four also took third in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:31.42 while the 44 freestyle team of William Taylor, Ethan Taylor, Mullholand and Williams turned in a time of 3:27.79, good for fifth place.
“I thought they swam great,” Moran said of his team. “You can tell the kids who trained really hard all season, shaved down and wore a laser suit today. Those kids had some awesome drops. The kids we’re bringing down for next week still had in-season best-times in most cases. We’re pretty excited, next week will be their week and we’ll see what they can do.”
It also remains to be seen in a week’s time if the dye from Evans’ purple hair will continue to run down his face as it did Saturday.
“I’m bleeding all over. Everything I touch is purple,” Evans laughed. “My chest is purple, my goggles are purple. It’s a mess.”
Boys results
Division I sectionals
Top places
200 medley relay: Third place; Dylan Weisenauser, Andrew Evans, William Taylor, Tate Williams; 1:39.96
200 freestyle: Eighth place; Mitchell Mullholand, 1:53.69
200 IM: Fourth place; Andrew Evans, 2:00.55
50 freestyle: 15th place; Noah Metzker, 23.77
1 meter diving:
100 butterfly: Third place; Dylan Weisenauer, 53.74
100 freestyle: 16th place; Logan Kropp, 53.52
500 freestyle: Third place; Mitchell Mullholand, 4:56.63
200 freestyle relay: Third place; Dylan Weisenauer, Andrew Evans, Tate Williams, William Taylor; 1:31.42
100 backstroke: Third place; Dylan Weisenauer, 55.70
100 breaststroke: First place; Andrew Evans, 58.42 (0.04 seconds faster than Ashland’s Hudson McDaniel, last year’s Division II state champion)
400 freestyle relay: Fifth place; William Taylor, Ethan Taylor, Mitchell Mullholand, Tate Williams; 3:27.79