Instead of having the boys and girls compete on different days, the Aurora Greenmen swimming team competed side-by-side in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I sectional meet. The Greenmen girls took fifth place by scoring 140 points and advanced four swimmers in five events to the district meet while the boys finished in seventh place with a team score of 137 points to advance five across seven events last Saturday at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva.
“We wanted to re-emphasize the fact that regardless of what teams are there, there is always going to be strong competitions,” said Coach Anthony Telerico. “There are powerhouse teams regardless of division so you want to approach each event in a matter of placing as high as you possibly can and approaching the events the same as you would but just realizing that you may need to put in a little more work.”
Aurora will return to the pool for the Division I district meet to compete for state berths at Cleveland State University’s Robert F. Busbey Natatorium on Saturday at noon.
The top two placers in each event received an automatic berth to the Division I district meet and the top 30 times in the individual races and the top 22 teams in the relays across all three sectionals also advanced.
While the Aurora girls were not unfamiliar competing in Division I, it marked the first time they competed in the sectional meet at the SPIRE Institute instead of The University of Akron’s Ocasek Natatorium.
“The important thing to realize especially in the past two years is that Akron has always been the largest population and vastest sectional,” noted the second-year coach. “We wanted to emphasize to our girls at SPIRE that we want you to exceed whatever your placement currently is in the sectional because the reality is that maybe you get a good placement, but we want you to assume that Akron has a few more people that can boot you off.”
The quartet of juniors Hannah Rapko, Kelsey Krizansky, sophomores Kendall Leigh and Elena Mighton took fifth in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:00.71.
Krizansky captured an automatic berth when she snagged second place in the 100-yard freestyle by clocking a time of 56.77 seconds, followed by Rapko placing ninth with a time of 59.18 seconds.
Leigh came in ninth place in the 500-yard freestyle, stopping the clock at 5:54.00.
Krizansky captured seventh in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:11.15.
Rapko, Krizansky, Leigh and Mighton earned another district bid when they clinched fifth place in the 400-yard freestyle relay by clocking a time of 3:59.25.
“Definitely the 400-yard freestyle relay was a nice touch for the girls and a nice rounding endpoint for our sectional meet,” Telerico added. “They went and broke four minutes for the first time so that was an exceptional performance for those girls.”
On the boys’ side, despite having a smaller roster, Aurora was spurred by its underclassmen who put forth a respectable effort across the board.
“We are proud of our boys especially in our relay teams because both of them are at minimum half occupied by freshmen,” Telerico said. “It is very nice to see that even in the first year of Division I, first-year freshmen are up-and-coming and they are going to do some great things for us.”
Juniors Colby Blaser, Andrew Mueller, freshmen William Prahler and Gavin Vanderschie teamed up to earn seventh place in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:49.18.
Prahler clinched sixth place in the 100-yard freestyle by clocking 1:55.37.
Vanderschie earned third place in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 55.16 seconds.
Prahler snagged fifth place in the 500-yard freestyle by touching the wall at 5:12.22.
“William has been an exceptional swimmer from the start of the year to the end of the year,” said Telerico. “We have been working to try and refine his stroke and help him take advantage of his height and just his build to make a stress-free lower intensity experience to swim that distance event. We know those distance events can take a lot out of you but, he has been doing exceptional in those events.”
Vanederschie took third place in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 56.68 seconds.
Mueller finished in 12th place in the 100-yard breaststroke, clocking a time of 1:08.46.
Junior Dominic Collelo teamed up with Blaser, Prahler and Vanderschie to take seventh place in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:39.96.
