Tradition Continues at Muskingum County Swim Meet

by Mike Stirling

Year 13 is in the books and the splashing has stopped at the MRC following the much-awaited Muskingum County Swim Meet.  To the surprise of few, Tri-Valley girls continued their domination by nailing down their seventh win in a row (and ninth overall) while the Scotty boys notched their thirteenth in a row to remain undefeated in the county competition.

In combined scoring, Tri-Valley piled up 325 points (boys plus girls) compared to 141 for runner-up John Glenn High School.  Cambridge came in third with 104 followed by Maysville at 80, Zanesville 76, Philo 57, West Muskingum 57 and Rosecrans at 41.  Girls from Tri-Valley had 160 and the boys racked up 165 in impressive performances.

In addition to an exciting swim meet, Tri-Valley had the opportunity of both recognizing and saying “farewell” to a group of 12 seniors who will be graduating in May of this year. In alphabetical order were Eric Allen, Chad Bell, Mikal Blackstone, Keegan Bumpus, Eve Davis, Benjamin Jacoby, William Kline, Sean Lacy, Jacob Merry, Caitlynn Wriston,  exchange student Bruno Ascariz and team manager Tina Rozsa.

Although several swimmers came very close to breaking Tri-Valley High School records, all remained intact.  County meet records, however, were another matter.  On the girls side, Junior Caroline Holmes continued her attack of the Scotty records by breaking the County Meet record in the 100 Backstroke and established a new time of 1:02.56 (nearly 9 seconds ahead of the second place finisher from Zanesville High).  Teammate Mariah Clark finished third followed by Scotties Seryna Mann, Caitlynn Wriston, Allie Norman and Emma Robinson.

On the boys side, Senior Chad Bell established a new meet record as he touched the pad in a time of 2:19.01 to win the boys 200 Individual Medley.  His effort was over 10 seconds faster than teammate Bruno Ascariz who was in second place and a second teammate, Nathan Sauerbrey who placed third.  The one-two-three finish was impressive for the Scotties.

Two Tri-Valley relay teams were able to erase previous meet records and replace them with their own records.  Boys swimmers Eric Allen, Ben Jacoby, Chad Bell and Keegan Bumpus (all seniors who have been swimming together for four years) were able to post a new time of 3:39.98 in the boys 400 Yard Free Relay followed by teammates Brady Jacobs-Bell, Jacob Merry, Nathan Sauerbrey and Blaine Cox who finished in third place.

Not to be outdone, the girls team of Clare Waggle, Mariah Clark, Katya Liber and Caroline Holmes posted their own new meet record in the girls 400 Yard Free Relay with a new time of 4:08.49.  They were followed by teammates Allie Norman, Macey Felumlee, Emma Robinson and Eve Davis who finished fifth.

Not record breaking but also impressive were Tri-Valley wins in the boys and girls 200 Free Relay.  The girls sent the team of Katya Liber, Marissa Sees, Larissa Lynch and Caroline Holmes to the blocks where they posted their win followed by a second team of Star Jacobs, Eve Davis, Caitlynn Wriston and Seryna Mann who finished fourth and a third team of Laine Welker, Rhiannon Shaw, Macey Felumlee and Kayley Harper.

Although not a meet record, the Senior team of Allen, Jacoby, Bell and Bumpus were able to win their 200 Free Relay by nearly nine seconds ahead of teammates Mikal Blackstone, Cyrus Dittmar, Mason McDaniel and Will Kline.  A third team of Tracy Beale, Blaine Cox, Sean Lacy and Brady Jacobs-Bell also represented the Scotties in the relay.

Four familiar names combined to represent Tri-Valley in the girls 200 Medley Relay.  Lynch, Waggle, Clark and Sees set the tone by finishing in first in the  Relay followed by teammates Wriston, Jacobs, Mann and Norman as well as by the team of Shaw, Welker, Harper and Robinson.

Another first was recorded in the boys 200 Medley Relay by the team of Blackstone, Dittmar, Sauerbrey and McDaniel while teammates Kline, Lacy, Merry and Tracy Beale came in fourth.

Caroline Holmes captured first the 200 IM coming up just short of her own meet record in the event set in 2017.  She was followed by Seryna Mann who finished in the third spot.  

In some of the fastest races of the meet, the 50 Free, once again the Seniors led the way for the boys.  A total of nine Scotties were swimming in the field of 24 overall.  Eric Allen and Ben Jacoby finished second and fourth for the Dawgs followed by teammates Dittmar, McDaniel, Blackstone, Merry, Kline, Lacy and Beale.  Sophomore Clare Waggle and Junior Marissa Sees finished third and seventh overall for the girls followed by Harper, Norman, Welker, Felumlee and Shaw.

Larissa Lynch captured the girls 100 Free in near record time followed by Liber, Wriston, Shaw and Felumlee.  For the boys, Eric Allen was the top Scotty finisher as he captured third place followed by Ascariz, Merry and Cox.

Lynch made her mark on the meet again as she touched in first place in the girls 200 Free.  Teammates Star Jacobs and Eve Davis finished in third and fourth respectively.  Keegan Bumpus captured the boys 200 Free followed by Jacobs-Bell in fifth place.

Scotties dominated the 500 Free event.  On her 16th birthday, Clare Waggle won the event for the girls team with teammate Marissa Sees out-touching her competitor from John Glenn to finish second.  Ben Jacoby won the 500 for the Dawgs followed by teammate Brady Jacobs-Bell who finished second.

Senior Keegan Bumpus led the way, again, in the boys 100 Butterfly to finish first just ahead of Nathan Sauerbrey.  Junior Mariah Clark did the trick for the girls as she finished first and led the way for fellow Scotties Eve Davis and Emma Robinson.

Scotties Mason McDaniel, Mikal Blackstone and Will Kline captured second, third and fourth in the boys 100 Backstroke followed by Junior Tracy Beale.

In his final individual event of the meet Senior Chad Bell captured first in the 100 Breaststroke followed by Cyrus Dittmar and Sean Lacy.  For the girls, Katya Liber was the top finisher as she finished in fourth place followed by Jacobs, Welker and Harper.

As a team, Tri-Valley swimmers performed well and represented their school in a manner that make us all proud.  They are great young people and continued the Tri-Valley tradition in the Muskingum County Swim Meet.