Road to Canton begins with sectional meets

With the calendar turning to February, it’s time once again to prepare for the road to Canton for The News-Herald coverage area contingent with the annual sectional swimming and diving primer.

Here is a look at what’s coming this week:

All area squads will compete at the SPIRE Sectional for swimming. Division II competition will start at 11 a.m. Feb. 7, with D-I taking place at 10 a.m. Feb. 8.

Area teams in the D-I SPIRE Sectional are Brush, Chardon (girls), Euclid, Madison, Mayfield, Mentor, North, Riverside and South.

Competing in D-II at SPIRE from the local contingent will be Andrews Osborne, Beachwood, Beaumont, Berkshire, Chagrin Falls, Chardon (boys), Geneva, Gilmour, Hawken, Kenston, Kirtland, Lake Catholic, Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, Perry, University,

Villa Angela-St. Joseph, West Geauga and Wickliffe.

There are a couple new addresses for area teams division-wise this winter. The Geneva girls and Kenston are now in D-II. The Bombers’ move will further strengthen the area’s D-II diving ranks, with three-time D-I state qualifier Mary O’Neill, who was eighth at state last winter, and 2019 D-I district qualifiers Clay Foster and Alex Bayus.

D-I sectional diving will be Feb. 6 at Solon. There is no D-II sectional diving, so all divers advance to district.

With Benedictine not offering swimming and diving this year, Luke Faulisi will represent Euclid in D-I. Faulisi was fifth at state in D-II last winter for the Bengals.

Returning underclassmen individual-event area sectional champions from a year ago are Kenston’s Mary O’Neill (diving), Chardon’s Sarah Bennett (50 free) and Campbell Tierney (500 free), Madison’s Zoey Fedele (100 fly), Mayfield’s Gianna Leffler (100 back) and Nick Cunningham (100 free), Hawken’s Tori Culotta (500 free), Jessica Eden (100 back), Sydney Bare (100 breast) and Alex Podrez (200 IM) and University’s Frank Applebaum (100 fly).

Senior swimmers this winter who won sectional titles in individual events or on relays in 2017 as freshmen were Bennett (200 medley relay and 100 back), Fedele (100 fly) and Hawken’s Bainon Hart (50 free, 200 free relay and 400 free relay), Sylvia Stewart-Bates (500 free) and Lauren Musbach (400 free relay).

As usual, the SPIRE Sectional in both divisions will send two automatic qualifiers to the Cleveland State District. At-larges vary: Boys D-I (24 individual event, 14 relays), girls D-I (34 individual event, 14 relays) and boys and girls D-II (26 individual event, 16 relays).

Sectional alignment for D-I and D-II can be found on the Northeast District Athletic Board website.

DAVID C. TURBEN — FOR THE NEWS-HERALD Chardon’s Sarah Bennett wins 100freestyle in a time of 53.61seconds Jan. 4during the WRC meet at SPIRE. The Hilltoppers girls won their third straight league meet title.