January 19, 2016 Bulldog sports round-up
- Published: January 19, 2017
SWIMMING
Yellow Springs High School swimmers competed this past weekend in the 2017 Southwest Ohio High School Swimming & Diving Classic, a meet that has been described as the “largest swimming and diving meet in the country.” Officials estimated 2,700 swimmers and 150 divers from 112 schools competed in the meet, the 34th of its kind.
Competition started with preliminaries at nine sites throughout the region, which began early Saturday and Sunday morning. Coach Jody Chick remarked that the team was all smiles despite the 6:30 a.m. warmups. Finalists converged both nights at 6:30 p.m. at St. Xavier’s Keating Natatorium. St. Xavier has won every one of the previous 33 boys championships, while Mason will be trying to defend the girls championship it won last year.
According to YSHS Coach David Hardwick, the Bulldogs had exceptional results in this year’s Classic. Twelve students competed in 33 events, six of which were relays. Many school records, seasonal bests and personal records were set in these two days of challenging swimming. The girls team placed 18th overall among the 47 girls teams that scored. While the boys did well individually, the team as a whole did not rank.
First there were the school records. Gaining two new school records (and breaking her own) was Team Captain Olivia Chick, who finished first in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke with times of 57.82 and 2:05.01, respectively. Chick also took first in the 50-yard freestyle (24.55) and the 100-yard freestyle (52.24). She individually scored 50 points for the team.
While Chick’s performance was noteworthy, all of the girls had several seasons’ best times and personal records:
Aza Hurwitz, Jude Meekin and Eden Spriggs all set personal records in the 200-yard freestyle; team captain Hannah Morrison and Meekin likewise set personal records in the 200 backstroke. All four YSHS swimmers who placed in the 100 backstroke — Hurwitz, Lauryn Dewine, Haley Smith Jr. and Sarah Zendlovitz — set personal records. Dewine, Hurwitz and Zendlovitz achieved personal bests in the 200 individual medley.
On the boys’ side, Tristan Giardullo achieved some personal bests in the 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke; team captain David Walker in the 200 freestyle, 200 individual medley and 200 fly; Trystan Burch in the 200 backstroke; and Harper Mesure crushed previous personal records in the 50 backstroke, 100 backstroke and 50 fly.
“Congrats to all, especially to those brave Bulldogs who survived longer and tougher events than you normally do!” said co-coach Bradley Martin. “You all showed a lot of grit and the product of all your hard work! Eat some pancakes!” He also noted that the swimmers seemed very motivated by their improvement.
The team meets four times weekly at Antioch College and will be building their training for the next three weeks as they prepare for the first of the sectional high school championship meets.
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