The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Mayfield’s Ferrante finds 200 IM groove
Wildcats girls team wins sectional crown; Madison’s Fedele wins two individual races
Those who constantly eye more and better are their own harshest critics.
Case in point: Mayfield multievent stalwart Gianna Ferrante.
Last month at the Western Reserve Conference meet, Ferrante turned in a dominant display against the field in 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 10.21 seconds. A 37.01 breaststroke split was notable. Afterward?
“I was not a fan,” Ferrante opined.
Feb. 10 at the Division I SPIRE Sectional brought out her fandom a bit more.
Ferrante was outstanding in an individual sweep of 200 IM and 100 free and was a key cog on the Wildcats’ winning 200 medley and 400 free relays as the Wildcats captured the sectional team title with 359.5 points and 10 top threes.
“I was pretty excited,” Ferante said of the team title. “I was expecting it, but I don’t know if the whole team was expecting it because we didn’t beat Chardon at WRC. But to have come back from that is really great. It’s just a great confidence booster for the girls.”
IM was a confidence booster for Ferrante.
She won the event with a 2:07.92, showing more consistent splits beyond breast leg that were more to her liking.
A 27.87 fly is only .31 off when she was seventh at the D-I district last winter.
At WRC, Ferrante was firm in her belief she couldn’t maximize her split that much more. She did anyway to start the road to Canton, however, going 36.70, good for a 1.03 drop vs. her winning swim at SPIRE a year ago.
“That was more of what I was expecting from this meet at this time,” Ferrante said. “Because last year at sectional, it was (2:08.69), and then district was (2:07.10) and state was 2:06. Being a 2:07 now puts me on a really good track for district and hopefully state.
“I didn’t look at my splits as much, but the faster, the better. I wasn’t expecting it to be any faster (on breast), but it was. And I think I can even get it down to 35.”
Ferrante captured 100 free with a 52.55, a .76 drop from when she was fourth in the event at the SPIRE Winter Invitational. Relays were in fine form as well, as 200 medley relay won with a 1:49.04 and 400 free relay was first in 3:40.11.
Madison’s Zoey Fedele continued a commendable first-half charge to her high school career as a double individual champion at SPIRE. The Blue Streaks sophomore won her signature events, 200 free (1:57.88) and 100 fly (57.97).
Fedele may have been inclined to purchase a lottery ticket on her way out of Ashtabula County. Her 100 fly time was the exact same time she swam in winning WRC in January, which spent three weeks as the leading time in the event in The News-Herald coverage area. And in 200 free, her closing splits, 30.70 and 30,04, were identical to her splits last year at sectional when she won the event.
“It’s actually really crazy,” Fedele said. “I looked up at the clock after (100 fly), and I was like,’ Really?!’ I mean, I was happy — it’s a 57. It’s obviously a good time to be at. But I was like, ‘Oh my gosh.’ ”
Chardon’s Katherine Jerry repeated as D-I sectional champion in 50 free, hitting the wall in 24.54, just .12 off her district time last winter, and went 24.91 to anchor the Hilltoppers’ winning 200 free relay (1:41.16).
“I’m happy with it,” Jerry said. “We didn’t do too much tapering this week, so it’s around where I was going for. Hopefully next week it goes a little bit better. But we’ve got a lot to work on, so it should be exciting.
“Those (200 free relay) girls did so amazing. I am really happy with that.”
On the boys side, Riverside’s Kyle Silver enjoyed his best 100 fly at a opportune moment. The Beavers’ junior went out in 23.55 and came home with a 27.75 for a superb 51.30, which marks a 1.07 cut from when he was 10th at district in 2017.
“What I’ve been doing most of the year is kind of hold back a little bit in the first 50 — it’s just kind of a mental block,” Silver said. “But I just thought today, my endurance in fly has gotten so good over the years that I can sprint the whole thing. So I dove in the first 50 and I was just focusing on myself — this is my race.
“(Shaker Heights’) Chachi Gustafson and (Solon’s) Forrest Campbell, their seed times were like two seconds faster than mine. But after that first 50, I was ahead of everyone and I was like, ‘Well, I’ll just finish it then.’ ”
Other area individual event sectional champions crowned at SPIRE were Euclid’s Andrius Kijauskas (200 free), Mayfield’s Alison Imhoff (500 free), Steven Grieshammer (500 free), Chardon’s Sarah Bennett (100 back) and Kenston’s Sofija Raudins (100 breast).
Don’t miss
For more from D-I sectional, including a profile of Fedele, check back in the coming days on News-Herald.com and in our print edition.