CANTON — Hannah Stevens added some more hardware to an already overcrowded trophy shelf Friday evening.
For the second year in a row, Stevens won state championships in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke and for the second year in a row, the Lexington senior was selected the Division II girls MVP at the 38th annual girls state swimming and diving tournament at Canton’s C.T. Branin Natatorium. Her double-gold performance helped Lady Lex to an 11th place finish in the team standings with 70 points.
“I’m definitely happy with the weekend. It’s a great way to go out,” Stevens said. “I was able to go out on the top of the podium for a second straight year. I couldn’t think of a better way for it to end.”
The Missouri-bound Stevens was fastest in both events after Thursday’s preliminaries. She broke her own Division II state meet record in the prelims, touching the wall in 53.87 seconds, almost 1.5 seconds ahead of No. 2 seed Elizabeth Auckley of Bay Village Bay.
She was a little slower to the wall in the finals, touching in 54.0 seconds. Still, her winning effort was more than a second faster than runner-up Kiley Eble of Gates Mills Gilmour Academy (55.16).
Her winning time of 50.06 seconds in the 100 freestyle was off her qualifying time of 49.73, but she outdistanced Gates Mills Gilmour Academy’s Macie McNichols (50.30) to the wall.
“I wasn’t really pleased with my times in the finals. I know I can do better,” Stevens said. “I don’t know where I was this weekend. I knew I wanted to touch the wall first, but unfortunately my times weren’t there.”
Lexington coach Brock Spurling wasn’t complaining.
“Her times might not have been her season-best, but to do what she has done is amazing,” Spurling said. “I couldn’t be any happier for her.”
Stevens teamed with Hailee Sautter, Sammie Basinger and Ashley Basham in the 400 freestyle relay. The quarter qualified for the A final (top eight in the preliminaries) and earned a spot on the podium with and eighth-place finish in 3:39.20. Stevens, Basinger, Sautter and Abbie Kaple finished 13th in the 200 freestyle relay (1:40.34).
“It was awesome to have so many of my teammates here with me,” Stevens said. “It was a lot of fun.”
The Lex boys had their share of fun, too, finishing 17th with 46 points. Derek Sautter finished third in the 100 butterfly in 51.10 seconds and was 10th in the 500 freestyle in 4:45.96. Sautter teamed with Stephen Ward, Noah Eckstein and Michael Dover on the 200 medley relay team. The foursome finished 12th in 1:40.76.
“I felt strong (in the 100 butterfly),” Sautter said. “I think I was sixth after the first 25 yards. I’ve been hearing over and over for the last few weeks that I had to finish the race.”
Sautter had some local company in the the 100 butterfly. Ontario’s Chad Wright joined Sautter in the A final and finished sixth in 51.70. Wright finished ninth in the 100 backstroke in 53.91 and swam legs on the eighth-place 200 medley relay team (1:39.67) and sixth-place 200 freestyle relay team (1:28.53). He was joined by Tyler Watson, Steven Toth and Naz Tkachenko on the 200 medley relay team and by Watson, Donovan Ruckman and Tkachenko on the 200 freestyle relay team.
The free relay team came in seeded third.
“We were still right there with our time. It was a really, really fast race,” Wright said. “We were hoping to be higher, but it was a good race by us.”
A junior, Wright has qualified for the state meet three consecutive years. He became the school’s first ever three-time podium finisher Friday, leading the Warriors to an 11th-place finish with 70 points.
“To see us on the board was cool,” Wright said. “Three years ago, when I was the only one here, to think that we would be on that board at any point in the meet would have just been a pipe dream. There’s no way that is ever going to happen, but it’s happened.
“We had nine guys here. We went from one guy my freshman year, to four guys last year to nine this year. It’s pretty amazing.”
