Arrows send three sophomores to state swim and dive championships

BOWLING GREEN — Three Ashland High School sophomores will be competing at the Ohio High School Athletic Association State Swimming and Diving Championships on Tuesday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton.

Returning state qualifier Owen Lemon, along with Brian VanBrennan and Jackie Schmitz, all qualified on Friday at the Division II District held at Bowling Green State University.

"Owen was fifth overall so he made the podium," noted Ashland swimming coach Krissy Geren. "(Coach) Mindy McPherron will take our boy divers to state on Tuesday."

The boys' swimmers competed Friday and the girls on Saturday at BGSU.

"I was super happy with all of the kids, the boys were phenomenal but some of the girls were just a little bit flat," Geren said. "When you look at overall, with our boys we had 14 out of 15 big-time lifetime best swims. And our girls we had 15 out of 24 best times."

One of those girls was senior Nykole Doerner.

"She broke the 100 (meter) butterfly school record at 1:01.03, and a lifetime best in the 50-meter freestyle, and Mackie Parsons had a lifetime best in the 200 freestyle of 2:04.73, and that was a big drop for her," Geren noted. "The 200 free relay had a great swim, all four of them (Alice Cao, Sara Finks, Jenna Hartson, Reise Stewart) had lifetime bests, and they were 1:46.66."

Geren said the boys had big drops in times all day long.

"It was amazing, and that's what we're used to at a district meet," she said.

"One of our biggest swims was (junior) Grant Wallery, he dropped 14 seconds in the 500-meter freestyle (5:09.23) and was sixth overall and got on the podium," Geren said. "The boys 400 relay (Aaron Lemon, Wallery, JJ Ellenwood, Lukah Will), they all dropped time at 3:33 flat. Lukah had an amazing swim in the 100 fly, he was :55.88. Grant had a phenomenal swim in the individual medley with a seven-second drop (2:09.61)."

Also swimming well with a pair of two big-time drops was freshman Jacob Packard in the 200-meter freestyle (2:02.55) and 500-meter freestyle (5:24.04), Ellenwood in the 100-meter freestyle (:55.65), and Aaron Lemon in the 200-meter freestyle (1:59.57).

"When they're rested for sectionals and then they come back and they're able to drop even more time at the district, that's a tribute to how hard they worked all season," Geren lauded. "All of those were gutsy swims. And (freshman) Hayden Hitchcock also had a lifetime best in the 100-meter backstroke at 1:03.81."

Geren credited her seniors for their leadership.

"Our seniors have done a great job kind of prepping our younger swimmers, and I'm excited about the middle schoolers that are coming up," Geren said. I'm very happy with the season overall, definitely. You start at the beginning of the year and see what you've got and you start to think and plan what they can do and then I love it when they surprise us and go even faster."

Geren also lent praise to Finks, who has been battling a hip injury all season.

"To the point, we weren't even sure she was going to have a season, and so for her to come back and be fast at sectionals and she kind of held her times through the district meet," Geren lauded. "She's just been dealing with doctors appointments, therapy appointments, and trying to stretch it out, trying to do what she could do just to have a senior season, so I'm really proud of her for just gutting through it, it's been hard and she's dealt with a lot of pain."

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Arrows send three sophomores to state swim and dive championships