The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
More from another successful D-II state meet
Maybe the only downside to the amount of area success typically on display at the Division II state meet is not all of it can be crammed into one night. With that in mind, here’s more from another big meet in Canton:
• The Hawken girls know how to set a tone at state — but by the numbers, this was the best yet.
The Hawks shattered the state record in 200 medley relay with a 1:41.63, a clinic on all legs. Portia Brown opened with a 25.33 backstroke, followed by Sydney Bare’s 29.28 breast split and punctuated by Abby Hay’s 23.91 butterfly and Bainon Hart’s 23.11 free anchor.
The previous record was the one set the week before at district by Hawken, a 1:43.81, and 1:41.63 was .46 off the pool record set by Denison University in 2009.
“It was insane,” Hay said. “We were all so excited. It completely set the tone for an awesome meet.”
• Hay, a junior, got her first taste of the state meet in Ohio after transferring from Peters Township (Pa.), for which she was third in the big-school Pennsylvania state meet last year in 200 IM as a sophomore.
“I’m used to Pennsylvania,” Hay said. “It’s very different. It’s insane here. The energy was off the charts.
“(Hawken coach Todd Clark) said it’s the most electric meet he has ever been to — and he has been to a lot of meets. So yeah, it was everything and more.”
• With this year’s state team title, Hawken extended “The Streak” to 20 straight years but also notched its 28th girls swimming state crown overall. That moves into a tie for fourth for most in the United States with Cheshire (Conn.) and Phoenix Xavier Prep (Ariz.). The top three are Hawaii powerhouse Honolulu Punahou (51) and the two schools ahead of Hawken on the active state title streak list as well as overall, Indiana staple Carmel (34 overall) and Jacksonville Bolles (Fla.; 30).
• With state titles from Brown in 200 IM and 100 back and their 200 medley and 400 free relays, the Hawken girls now have 125 event championships all-time. The rest of the area on the girls side has combined for 21.
• University’s Ethan Banks projected a 500 free ‘A’ final at state this year that would be wide open with recent standouts such as Legacy Christian’s Eric Knowles and Chagrin Falls’ Jason Quinn in college.
The junior was right — and he nearly threw his hat in the state title discussion in the process as he took third with a 4:33.50.
Banks crept within sight of the lead on middle splits when he went 27.95 and 28.06 on his fifth and sixth laps, the former nearly a full second cut from state a year ago. But he likely needed high-27s on his seventh and eighth splits, as the deficit increased from .12 to .89.
Nonetheless, after shaving exactly six seconds from when he was fifth at state in 2017 — not to mention, of course, US winning the team title — Banks had no complaints.
“The state meet is the hardest meet to swim fast at,” Banks said. “It’s not a great pool. You swim two days in a row. You’re exhausted. To put up a 4:33 — going into today, I honestly didn’t think I was going to put up a 4:33. I was feeling pretty tired.
“I just went out there — my first 100 didn’t feel great, but after that, I noticed the other two guys (Waynesville’s Owen Conley and Kettering Alter’s Kevin Leibold) seemed to be tired, too. I kind of realized halfway through, ‘Maybe I am going faster than I think I am.’ So I was like, ‘You know what?’ I’m just going to go for it. I didn’t have quite the energy to bring it home with those two guys, but there is always next year.”
• Part of the talk postmeet as US celebrated its team title was the free anchor swim of senior Cole Fallon as he rallied the Preppers to a win in 200 medley relay. Fallon went 21.35 — admitting afterward he didn’t breathe once — as US won in 1:34.47.
Last year at state, when US was fifth, the free anchor split was a 22.53.
“Cole Fallon put in the most ridiculous swim I’ve ever seen in my entire life on that anchor leg,” Banks said. “It was unbelievable watching that. I was over there hanging on the bulkhead watching that race, and I saw that finish. I looked up the board, saw that he had won and was like, ‘Oh my god. That is unbelievable.’ ”
• Gilmour’s Cate O’Haimhirgin joined the club — unfortunately, no one in the membership is at all pleased about it.
The sophomore, in a middle lane for the 100 breast ‘A’ final, had to thwart distraction from a Spectrum Sports camera positioned by the blocks that gets tight closeups of swimmers on the blocks — mostly about 1-2 feet from them.
The tight shot had become customary for a few years in TV coverage before complaints got it halted last season, with the camera positioned further away from the blocks. But it returned with a vengeance this year.
“At first, I kind of threw the camera a wink and a wave,” the D-II 100 breast state runner-up said. “But when the camera stayed there for like a minute, I was like, ‘Uh ...’ I’m just trying to be in my zone — mess around, lip sync to my music.
“But it’s kind of awkward. I don’t like it a lot. I feel like they should get a closeup and then move back instead of being there the entire time as I try to psych myself up to swim.”
• There were 71 area swimmers competing at state across both divisions this year, including 31 first-timers. Five seniors this winter also competed at state as freshmen in 2015 — Mayfield’s Alison Imhoff, Gilmour’s Peyton Rudman, Hawken’s Spencer Crawford and Zeb Hart and US’ Zach Halawa.