by Mike Stirling
Eleven area swim squads accepted the invitation to participate in the 2019 Tri-Valley Scottie Sprints at the Muskingum County Family YMCA (Rec Center) on Saturday, November 30. Both swimmers and spectators enjoyed the event.
When the splashing stopped, both Tri-Valley girls and boys finished in a very respectable second place and were only bested by a strong combined River View squad.
On the girls side of the ledger, Tri-Valley standouts Caroline Holmes, Clare Waggle, Larissa Lynch and Marissa Sees captured first in the 200 Yard Medley Relay to begin the Scottie scoring. They were followed in that event by the team of Emma Robinson, Mazie Mallett, Seryna Mann and Allie Norman. A third team of Macey Felumlee, Emma Lewis, Alex Dale and Kayley Harper swam the same event as did the foursome of Katie Davis, Emma Meadows, Rhiannon Shaw and Jade White.
Later in the meet, the same foursome of Lynch, Sees, Waggle and Holmes represented the Lady Scotties as they earned their second first-place finish in the 200 Yard Free Relay finishing some 4 seconds in front of second-place River View. Garnering fifth-place points was the team of Mallett, Dale, Felumlee and Mann. Also representing the Dresden school were Norman, Harper, Robinson and Lewis followed by Davis, White, Meadows and Shaw.
Representing Tri-Valley, Lynch was back in the pool where she had to settle for second place in the Girls 50 Yard Backstroke. Sees finished in fifth place followed by Harper, Norman, Robinson and White.
In a field of 52 girls swimming the 50 Free, the locals entered Felumlee, Norman, Davis and Robinson and came back with seven entries in the Girls 50 Breaststroke. Junior Clare Waggle finished in fourth place with Mallett picking up eighth place points. Lewis, Harper, Davis, Meadows and White rounded out the list of Scottie entries.
Senior Caroline Holmes, swimming the 100 Yard Individual Medley (IM) finished first while teammate, Junior Larissa Lynch came in third followed by teammates Sees, Mallett, Mann, Dale, Lewis and Shaw.
Holmes picked up another first as she captured the Girls 50 Yard Butterfly followed by teammates Waggle (4th) and Mann (5th) and Scotties Meadows and Shaw.
Not to be outdone, Scottie boys posted some impressive swims as well. Beginning the scoring, the relay team of Mason McDaniel, Cyrus Dittmar, Hansel Holmes and Blaine Cox picked-up a second-place finish in the Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay. The foursome of Dittmar, Nathan Sauerbrey, McDaniel and Holmes later hit the water in the Boys 200 Yard Free Relay to post another second-place finish for the Dresden team.
In the 50 yard events, the boys were well represented by McDaniel in the 50 Backstroke where he captured the event followed by teammates Blaine Cox and Senior Tracy Beale. McDaniel returned to capture points in the 50 Free followed by Dittmar in that event.
Freshman Hansel Holmes was not done yet either. Holmes finished 1st in the Boys 50 Yard Butterfly as he led fellow Dawgs Sauerbrey and Beale to the touchpad. Junior Cyrus Dittmar came in second place in the Boys 50 Backstroke followed by Schawn McDonald.
Blaine Cox was the only Tri-Valley entrant in the Boys 100 Yard Free where he captured fifth-place points for the Scotties. McDonald was the Scottie swimmer in the Boys 100 Yard Backstroke and finished fourth to add to the Tri-Valley points total.
To finish off his efforts, Hansel Holmes posted an impressive swim to take first place in the Boys 100 Yard Individual Medley. Teammate Sauerbrey also recorded a good swim as he swam all four strokes in the medley to finish fourth.
All said and done, Tri-Valley swimmers performed well and continue to improve. Coach Holmes was pleased with the efforts and looks forward to even more improvement from all the team members.
