ONTARIO – Debbie Henry and Sam Van Cura had busy days on Saturday. Their Ontario swimmers made it worthwhile.
The co-coaches for the Warriors had double duty, helping to host the 36th Ontario Swimming Invitational – as well as guiding their boys and girls teams in the 15-team competition.
Ontario’s boys dominated the pool, winning six of the 11 events in piling up 312.5 points. Galion was a distant second with 157.5 while Ashland was third with 128. The Ontario girls finished 8th, but the boys and girls combined score was 387.5, easily topping Ashland (324) and Galion (244.5).
“We haven’t won this meet in the last six years or so,” Henry said in between answering questions from another coach and another from one of her swimmers. “It’s our depth that made the difference today. We won some events, but it was our seconds, thirds, fourths and fifths that helped us win it.”
“It’s been OK,” she said about the busy day. “We had the (assistant coaches) taking over and warming up our kids and once the meet gets started, we’re just coaches.”
The meet, which included some 285 swimmers, lasted almost eight hours, starting at 10 a.m. and finishing just before 6 p.m.
“It’s been a long day,” Henry said, “but things went pretty well. We had some issues with our timing sensors, but we worked through them.”
Chad Wright had a huge meet for Ontario. He won the 100-yard freestyle while also swimming legs on the Warriors’ winning 200 medley relay and 400 free relay teams. Jared Watson won the 500 free and swam a leg on the winning 400 free relay team. Tyler Watson won the 100 back and also had a leg on the 200 and 400 free relay teams.
Other members of winning Ontario relay teams were Kyle Cordrey, Steven Toth and Donovan Ruckman (200 medley); Jimmy Sheldon, Naz Thachenko and Ruckman (200 free); and Thachenko (400).
Making it even better was the fact the 200 freestyle relay team set a new meet record in 1:32.24, eclipsing the 1:32.30 set last year by Colonel Crawford.
“We didn’t taper for this meet,” Henry said, “but our kids are getting some really good times. We worked hard in practice this week – getting our mindset ready for the sectionals in a few weeks.”
Mansfield Senior finished fifth overall with the Tygers boys finishing fourth and the girls in fifth, led by two first-place finishes by All-Ohioan Hutch Blackstone (50 free and 100 breast) among the boys and Tobie Zeller (100 breast) among the girls.
Steve Shoenfelt, in his first year leading Mansfield Senior, said his Tygers are improving their times and gaining confidence with the sectionals coming up in three weeks. “We only had a few kids who are not swimming their best times of the year,” he said.
Shoenfelt said he has a young team and has lost a few swimmers since the season begin. “I am not sure what expectations were in the past, but we had some kids who didn’t want to practice, but wanted to be on the team.”
Blackstone had a long wait between his individual events Saturday, though he did compete on a couple of Mansfield Senior relay teams. The veteran worked to find ways to fill the time between swims.
“It tires you out a lot. It’s really hot (in the pool area) and there are so many people,” he said. “We talked about having a snowball fight outside … that’s how bored we were,” Blackstone said with a laugh. “I like to walk around and find guys on other teams I haven’t seen in awhile. We talk and catch up with each other.”
Another Richland County swimmer posting a big day on Saturday was Abby Reynolds of Mansfield Christian, who won both the 50 and 100 freestyle events.
Among other Richland County schools in combined team scores, Mansfield St. Peter’s was 7th, Shelby was 8th, Mansfield Christian was 11th and Madison was 13th.
GIRLS TEAM SCORES
1. Ashland – 196
2. Colonel Crawford – 138
3. Marion Pleasant – 129
4. Wynford – 109
5. Mansfield Senior – 105
6. Galion – 87
7. Mansfield Christian – 84
8. Ontario – 75
9. Bucyrus – 70
10. Mansfield St. Peter’s – 48
11. Shelby – 48
12. Tiffin Columbian – 28
13. Madison – 26
14. Loudonville – 10
15. Upper Sandusky – 9
BOYS TEAM SCORES
1. Ontario – 312.5
2. Galion – 157.5
3. Ashland – 128
4. Mansfield Senior – 105
5. Colonel Crawford – 99
6. Tiffin Columbian – 95
7. Mansfield St. Peter’s – 81
8. Shelby – 76
9. Marion Pleasant – 27
10. Madison – 26
11. Upper Sandusky – 24
12. Bucyrus – 18
13. Wynford – 7
14. Mansfield Christian – 6
COMBINED TEAM SCORES
1. Ontario – 387.5
2. Ashland – 324
3. Galion – 244.5
4. Colonel Crawford – 237
5. Mansfield Senior – 210
6. Marion Pleasant – 156
7. Mansfield St. Peter’s – 129
8. Shelby – 124
9. Tiffin Columbian – 123
10. Wynford – 116
11. Mansfield Christian – 90
12. Bucyrus – 88
13. Madison – 52
14. Upper Sandusky – 33
15. Loudonville – 10
GIRLS WINNERS
200-yard medley relay – Ashland
200-yard freestyle – Taryn Gathright, Bucyrus
200 IM – Hannah Dunham, Marion Pleasant
50 free – Abby Reynolds, Mansfield Christian
100 fly – Natalie Howard, Tiffin Columbian
100 free – Abby Reynolds, Mansfield Christian
500 free – Chloe Grove, Colonel Crawford
200 free relay – Colonel Crawford
100 back – Abriana Hosler, Ashland
100 breast – Tobie Zeller, Mansfield Senior
400 free relay – Marion Pleasant
BOYS WINNERS
200-yard medley relay – Ontario
200-yard freestyle – Chad Karnes, Galion
200 IM – Zane Ekin, Galion
50 free – Hutch Blackstone, Mansfield Senior
100 fly – Zane Ekin, Galion
100 free – Chad Wright, Ontario
500 free – Jared Watson, Ontario
200 free relay – Ontario
100 back – Tyler Watson, Ontario
100 breast – Hutch Blackstone,Mansfield Senior
400 free relay – Ontario
