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FREMONT – A year ago held nothing but illness and disappointment for Olivia DeRodes.

Olivia DeRodes

But the sad ending to her sophomore year only served to fuel a junior season that will see her swim in four events this weekend at the Division I state swim meet.

DeRodes will swim in both the 50 and 500 freestyle events as well as legs in the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relays.

“It’s super exciting. It’s what we’ve been waiting for all year,” DeRodes said. “We wanted to get all three relays back to state so I’m excited that we have six girls going this year. I love Canton. It’ll be a fun night.”

Last year, however, wasn’t so fun.

The week of sectionals last year, DeRodes fell ill with flu-like symptoms. While she still swam in the meet that weekend, her times her downs, leading to lower-than-expected seeds for the district meet. There, still recovering from her illness, DeRodes failed to qualify for the state meet as an individual, despite doing so the year before as a freshman.

“It messed up my whole schedule,” DeRodes said of falling ill. “The next week, I still wasn’t feeling great and I was stressed out (about) if I was going to be able to swim well. I stressed myself out last year.

“Last year, it was so disappointing, but, honestly, it drove me way more for this year and to drive this team harder,” she added. “I think I worked harder this year because of last year, how it ended and how disappointing it was. It was a lot of motivation. I think I’ve found my place and the events I want to swim.”

Olivia DeRodes (right) and Alexis Prenzlin (left) swim together in practice for the Division I state meet.

DeRodes captured district championships in both the 50 and the 500. Her 50 time of 23.77 seconds has her seeded ninth entering the state meet while her time of 5:06.36 places her 22nd in the 500. Her abilities to perform in both sprints has put her in a category with few others. Mason junior Mackenzie Grau is the only swimmer joining DeRodes in both events at the state meet.

“This high school season, I haven’t met any girls who do the 50 and 500 yet,” she said. “The 50 has always been my favorite event, I love it. You have no room to mess up and you get in and it’s go time.

“I got really good at the 500 last year, my times started to drop and I found I was kind of good at it. …I thought it’d be a good match. We tried it out in our midseason meet in Columbus and I tried it and loved it. It’s worked out.”

The state preliminaries start at 9 a.m. Friday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton. Of the 24 qualifiers, the top 16 will advance to the finals. The top eight will be guaranteed a place on the podium while the ninth through 16th swimmers will compete in the consolation finals where they will earn all-Ohio honors. The finals will begin at 4 p.m. Saturday.

 

Prenzlin has eyes on podium

Alexis Prenzlin

Last year Alexis Prenzlin was a wide-eyed freshman making her state swim meet debut. Seeded 15th entering the 100 breaststroke, she ended the weekend finishing 16th.

Having won the district championship with a time of 1:03.74, Prenzlin returns to Canton seeded 11th, despite being unsatisfied with her performance last weekend.

“I didn’t swim as good as I wanted to at districts. I had a good time, but not as good as I wanted,” she said. “I want to drop another second at state this weekend. My coaches think so and I think I can. I’m hoping to come back top eight.”

Prenzlin said she was disappointed with the legs she swam in the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays, and in her performance in 200 IM, which affected her time in her breaststroke.

“They were not anything near what I wanted, so I was pretty upset about that and angry at myself,” Prenzlin said. “I’m hoping this week everything goes good and I’m more prepared. When I was swimming the breaststroke (in practice this week), my pull-outs were really deep and off the wall was really deep, so I’m hoping for more of that this weekend.”

Freshmen making their state meet debuts

Faith Zimmerman (right) and Mara Brown (left) share a laugh after a lap in practice.

When the season began, Faith Zimmerman and Mara Brown knew swimming in varsity events would not be the same as swimming in recreation leagues.

Qualifying for districts, they said, would have counted as successful seasons, but this weekend they’ll be making the trip to Canton for the state meet, swimming alongside previous state qualifiers AnneMarie Moses and MaKennah Fitzgerald in the 400 freestyle relay.

“I didn’t even know I’d go to districts, much less state,” Zimmerman said. “My highest expectation was districts.”

Four things the freshmen have going for them is the quartet of juniors they’re joining in Canton, who’ve all been there twice already and offered them views on how to best handle the pressure of the meet.

“They’re all super-fast and I’m new at this,” Brown said. “They’ve given me some advice on how to handle it. ‘Don’t worry about it and just swim. Don’t worry about everybody else, focus on yourself and the relay.’

Faith Zimmerman

Mara Brown

“It’s going to be nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time,” she said. “Adrenaline will be most of it because you’re nervous and you just want to do good.”

As if going to state wasn’t nerve-wracking enough, the duo will be swimming in a different relay they’ve been accustomed to. They swam in the 200 freestyle in the district, but will be taking part in the 400 in Canton.

“In years where I’ve had three relays go and six or seven girls on the state team, I make changes,” coach Tina Moses said. “The goal is to get them to finals and usually it’s a struggle to get three relays to state, so it’s really something special we have all three of our relays represented at the state meet. So, I had to spread things out to get them there, now I’m going to put them back together.”

For Zimmerman, who is accustomed to swimming 50 yards as part of a 200 relay, swimming twice the length she’s used to on the sport’s biggest stage, is a daunting challenge.

“I don’t do the 100 free a lot, I’m used to the 50 free, so It’s kind of nerve-wracking to go to state and to do a 100 free.

“I’m going to be nervous, I know for sure I’ll be nervous,” she said. “Hopefully I can keep it together.”

Big 4 have big goals for relays

MaKennah Fitzgerald

AnneMarie Moses

From the start of the season, perhaps the biggest question surrounding Ross’ girls swim team was how the 200 medley relay would fare at the state level.

Last year, the Lady Giants’ team of Fitzgerald, Prenzlin, Moses and DeRodes entered the state meet as the No. 8 seed and finished the weekend in 10th.

The same foursome took 11th in the 200 freestyle relay.

A year older, the same four are back and ready to put themselves into the championship final on Saturday.

“I think we can make it on the podium, for sure,” AnneMarie Moses said. “Anywhere is good, honestly. On the podium is the goal, always. The 200 free relay we have a good chance at that too.”

The Lady Giants enter the medley seeded 10th with a time of 1:46.17. And though the freestyle has a seed time of 1:39.35, just squeezing into the meet with the 24 seed, adding DeRodes and Fitzgerald onto the mix, Tina Moses believes will give the Lady Giants a chance to move up.

“You’ll see that time considerably faster than the district time,” she said.

Added AnneMarie Moses: “We’re trying to ride out our taper. We tapered for our biggest meet last weekend at district and going into state, we hope to have a little bit left. It’s a long season and it’s the last weekend. The adrenaline will carry us through.”

 
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