Shawnee leads area swimmers at sectionals

LIMA — The Shawnee girls and Lexington boys swam off with the Division II sectional championship at the Lima YMCA on Saturday afternoon.

Shawnee’s girls scored 390.5 points while Lima Central Catholic (328) nipped Lexington (321) for second place. Wapakoneta finished fourth with 169. Minster finished sixth while other local finishers were New Bremen (10), Marion Local (11), St. Henry (12) and Fort Recovery (15).

“It’s just about getting people through (to districts) and don’t make huge errors,” Shawnee coach Jeff Brown said. “So far we got people through so I’m happy. For some teams, if getting to the districts is the goal this is their Olympics.”

The winner of each event at the four different sectionals is guaranteed a spot in Friday’s district meet at Bowling Green State University. The remaining 28 at-large spots will be decided by the fastest times at the other sectionals. Those results should be available this afternoon.

Meet manager and LCC coach Dan Reinecke was pleased with his team’s effort.

“We are dropping times of all the swimmers we’ve had,” Reinecke said. “I don’t care if they win as long as they drop time.”

In the girls 200-yard Medley Relay, Shawnee’s team of Emily Murphy, Katie Chung, Emily Wolery and Aerika Wieser set sectional record with a time of 1:57.34. They beat a record set by Shawnee in 2002.

Murphy qualified individually in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle. In the 50, the sophomore broke the 12-year-old Shawnee record of Abbie Terveer with a time of 24.15. Murphy put her name in the record books once again breaking Terveer’s record in the 100 with a 52.09.

The Indians will send 200-yard freestyle relay champions to the district meet after Molly Scott, Katie Chung, Cara Murphy and Emily Murphy broke the sectional record Shawnee set last year with a 1:41.96. The same foursome qualified in the 400-yard freestyle relay.

Lima Central Catholic’s Brooke Davenport cruised in the 500-yard freestyle as she captured the championship with a 5:39.36. The senior won the race by 43 seconds.

“It’s exciting,” Davenport said. “You get a good feeling as a senior and you win a sectional title. It’s pressure today because I have two Shawnee girls in Alex Schoonover and Emily Vondran next to me and they are very nice girls.”

Davenport will make a return trip to BGSU and knows she will have to swim better next week.

“Top 10 in districts next week is our goal,” Davenport said. “I need to work on turns and to work hard in the middle of the 500.”

On the boy’s side Lexington (386), Ontario (294) and Shawnee (293) were the top three teams. Wapakoneta finished fourth. Fort Recovery was eighth followed by New Bremen in ninth, Minster 10th and Marion Local 11th. Lima Central Catholic finished 13.

Despite finishing third, Shawnee coach Jeff Brown has his eyes on a bigger prize.

“With this meet we want to get in and get out and get a comfortable seed for the districts,” Brown said. “This is like after 8:30 at night, nothing good can come from this. We’ve sacrificed points in the individual events for the relays.”

The Indians relay team of Erik Risolvato, Curl Logan, Garret Diltz and Zachary Diltz stole the show. The foursome won the 200-yard medley relay by six seconds, the 200-yard freestyle relay in record breaking fashion by eight seconds, and the 400-yard freestyle relay by 16 seconds and broke another sectional record.

“We’ve been working our butts off the last five months knowing the results will come,” Risolvato said. “This is our resting week. We are confident in what we are doing. Right now it’s all about conserving energy. We are progressing as a team. It feels like you are on top of the water.”

In individual events, Shawnee’s Britton Weigt set a sectional record with a 1:48.37 in the 200-yard freestyle. The sophomore also won the 100-yard freestyle. Teammate Zachary Diltz won the 50-yard freestyle with a 22.63. Risolvato broke his own sectional record from last year in the 100-yard butterfly.

“The biggest thing to work on here is turn and under the water,” Risolvato said. “In a high pressure meet you can’t focus on those, but here you can.”

Wapakoneta’s Ryan Kremer was the only other area automatic qualifier, winning the 100-yard backstroke (57.40).