by Mike Stirling
Ohio University Aquatic Center at Athens was bursting at the seams as high school boys and girls from 17 swim squads including our local team from Tri-Valley converged to go after their share of over 1900 points as well as 22 first-place finishes in the very popular Athens Invitational on December 7, 2019.
When the results were tallied, the Scotty girls team finished a very respectable 6th while the boys claimed 11th place against some very talented teams from all around the southeastern part of the state of Ohio.
Most impressive was the performance of Senior Caroline Holmes as she captured first place in the Girls 500 Freestyle event where she dropped over 8 seconds and won her race by 27 seconds. On the boys side, Caroline’s brother (Hansel, Freshman ) finished in sixth place in the same event.
Of further note, Caroline finished in second place in the Girls 50 Free just .19 out of first place. A total of 172 swimmers participated in the 50 Free for the girls as Holmes was followed by Scotties Seryna Mann, Marissa Sees, Mariah Clark, Mazie Mallett, Kayley Harper, Katie Davis, Rhiannon Shaw, Emma Meadows and Jade White. For the boys, 105 swimmers entered the 50 Free. Top finisher for the Dawgs was Blaine Cox followed by Gabe Lentz, Bret Mohler and Tracy Beale.
Top finishers for the Dresden squad in the 100 Free were Clark (for the girls) followed by Alex Dale while the boys top finisher was Cyrus Dittmar. A total of 122 swimmers swam the 100 Free (141 girls and 81 boys).
Junior Larissa Lynch swam an impressive Girls 200 Free. Lynch nailed down third place and was less than one second out of second. She was joined by teammates Mann and Mallett. Cox led the boys in the 200 Free where he was joined by fellow swimmers Freshman Lentz and Senior Mohler.
As is always the case, the medley races are always exciting. Leading the way was Marissa Sees in the Individual Medley followed by Rhiannon Shaw. For the Tri-Valley boys, McDaniel, Sauerbrey and Beale were the entrants. In the 200 Medley Relay, the Scotties were represented by the teams of Felumlee, Mallett, Mann and White as well as the foursome of Holmes, Waggle, Lynch and Sees. The boys also entered the team of McDaniel, Dittmar, Holmes and Cox as well as Mohler, Sauerbrey, Beale and Lentz.
Lady Scotties Harper, Meadows, Davis and Dale carried the Tri-Valley banner in the Girls 200 Free Relay as did McDaniel, Sauerbrey, Dittmar and Holmes for the boys. Representing the Dresden squad in the 400 Free Relay was the girls team of Dale, Davis, Felumlee and Clark.
In the specialty events, Clare Waggle was the lone entry for the Scotties in the Girls 100 Butterfly while Hansel Holmes finished an impressive fourth in the event for the boys. Lady Scotties Lynch, Felumlee and Harper were the girls entrants in the 100 Backstroke where Lynch notched 5th place as she recorded a new personal best time in the event.
Mason McDaniel swam the Boys 100 Backstroke and was the only Tri-Valley swimmer in the event. In the Girls 100 Breaststroke, Waggle, Dale and Davis all recorded new personal best times in the event. For the Dawgs in the Boys 100 Breaststroke, Dittmar and Sauerbrey were the entrants for the Dresden school.
Coach Holmes was pleased with the efforts and felt this meet was a great tune-up for the Ned Reeb meet next weekend and encouraged further hard work.