by Mike Stirling
Five area swim squads accepted the Tri-Valley invitation to participate in a combined duel meet at the YMCA facility in Zanesville on Friday, December 6. When the points were tallied, the combined scores of the Scotty boys and girls indicated duel meet wins against all competition.
To the surprise of no one, the girls were again let by the team of Marissa Sees, Mazie Mallett, Seryna Mann and Mariah Clark in the Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay followed by the team of Macey Felumlee, Emma Lewis, Emma Meadows and Kayley Harper. A third team comprised of Allie Norman, Katie Davis, Rhiannon Shaw and Jade White also represented Tri-Valley.
In the Girls 200 Yard Freestyle Relay, Sees was joined by Larissa Lynch, Clare Waggle and Caroline Holmes as this team won first place overall followed by Alex Dale, Davis, Norman and Felumlee. Establishing a new ‘personal best time’, the team of Shaw, White, Meadows and Lewis also represented the Scotties.
With an impressive win in the Girls 400 Yard Free Relay, the foursome of Lynch, Clark, Waggle and Holmes finished in overall first nearly 20 seconds in front of the second-place team. Lady Scotties Mallett, Harper, Dale and Mann touched in fourth place.
Girls 50 Yard Freestyle events were kicked-off by Waggle as she won overall first place followed by Mann, Clark, Harper and Norman. Holmes notched an overall first place in the Girls 100 Free nearly nine seconds in front of the second-place finisher. Davis was the other Scottie in the event.
Larissa Lynch represented the Dawgs in the Girls 200 Free where she finished second overall as teammate Sees captured fourth place overall. Three girls swam for the Scotties in the Girls 500 Yard Free. Junior Clare Gaggle touched in third place followed by Mann and teammate Norman.
Mazie Mallett led all Scottie girls in the 200 Yard IM followed by Freshman Emma Lewis who dropped seven seconds and Alex Dale. The Girls 100 Yard Butterfly saw Larissa Lynch finish third followed by Shaw and Meadows. Senior Caroline Holmes scored an impressive victory in the Girls 100 Backstroke followed by Sees, Dale, Lewis, Shaw, Harper and White.
In the Girls 100 Yard Breaststroke, Freshman Mazie Mallett captured first place finishing over 3 seconds ahead of her competition. She was followed by teammates Davis and Meadows.
On the boys side of the ledger, the team of Mason McDaniel, Cyrus Dittmar, Hansel Holmes and Blaine Cox scored a 3-second victory overall competition followed by the team of Bret Mohler, Nathan Sauerbrey, Tracy Beale and Gabe Lentz. In the Boys 200 Yard Free Relay, the same team of McDaniel, Dittmar, Holmes and Cox again outpaced all competition to win the event by nearly 14 seconds. They were followed by the Scottie team of Sauerbrey, Mohler, Beale and Lentz.
Cyrus Dittmar finished first overall for the Dawgs in the Boys 50 Yard Free followed by Lentz and Beale. Nathan Sauerbrey was the only entrant for the Scottie in the Boys 100 Free where he finished fifth overall. Sauerbrey and McDaniel captured fourth and fifth in the Boys 200 Free, while teammates Hansel Holmes and Blaine Cox finished third and sixth respectively in the Boys 200 Yard Individual Medley.
McDaniel had a busy evening as he next swam in the 100 Yard Butterfly where he took second overall just 3 seconds out of first place. Teammates Cox, Lentz and Mohler finished fourth, seventh and eighth in the Boys 100 Yard Backstroke while Freshman Hansel Holmes finished second in the Boys 100 Breaststroke just .29 seconds out of first. Mohler was the only other Scotty entrant in the event.
To cap the events, Tri-Valley sent Junior Cyrus Dittmar and Senior Tracy Beale to the blocks to swim the Boys 500 Yard Free, Top finisher for the Dawgs was Dittmar. Both swimmers cut time off their previous bests.
Once again, the Scotties performed well and continue to improve. Many of the Scotties recorded new ‘personal best‘ times as a result of hard work in their daily workouts.