FREMONT – Olivia DeRodes isn’t exactly used to swimming from behind. In her individual events she gets out to a lead early and leaves the competition in her wake while swimming the last leg in relays, she usually inherits a lead and sees it through to the end.
Not Thursday night, however.
Olivia DeRodes
Swimming the final leg of the 400 freestyle relay in a dual meet with Perrysburg, DeRodes dove into the pool trailing Perrysburg’s Julia Beer by two seconds.
“I didn’t know if I could catch her. I jumped in and she was going fast, so I just put my head down and went,” DeRodes said.
DeRodes trimmed the deficit so she and Beer were neck-and-neck in the final moments as they reached for the wall. DeRodes, MaKennah Fitzgerald, Mara Brown and Maddie Gallagher combined to win the event with a time of 3:48.67, just 0.15 seconds ahead of Beer and Perrysburg.
“Today was the first time (this season) I had to go catch somebody,” DeRodes said. “The girls were tired, Maddie Gallagher just got out of the 100 breaststroke, she was dying. I was like, ‘Do your best, I got you. We’ll be all right.’ Then I got in and I was like, ‘I don’t know…’. It was fun.”
Though no other event held the same level of drama as DeRodes’ come-from-behind relay win, there were plenty of quality swims as the Ross swim teams swept the dual meet with Perrysburg, the girls winning 121-78 and the boys taking a 119-92 win.
“The older swimmers who went down to (Ohio State’s) Ned Reeb (Invitatioal), you never know how they’re going to respond after a big meet like that, sometimes there’s a let-down,” coach Phil Moran said. “We didn’t have our tech suits on and we did a lot of yardage (in practice), I kind of beat them up this week, so I wasn’t sure what we’d get but we swam really well. We had some times that were almost what we did at Ned Reeb.”
The Lady Giants won all but one event with DeRodes winning the 50 and 500 freestyles, Alexis Prenzlin winning the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke, AnneMarie Moses won the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke and MaKennah Fitzgerald took the 100 freestyle.
Faith Zimmerman (medley) and Gallagher (200 freestyle) swam legs on the first-place relays with Moses and Prenzlin with DeRodes (medley) and Fitzgerald (200 freestyle) joining in as well.
The divers had a good night as well, winning both the girls and boys competitions. Sarah Watson totaled a 175.3 score while Dane Michael won the for the boys with 182.9.
“Dane Michael had one of the best dive meets, for six dives, that I’ve seen. He had a really good dive meet,” Moran said. “Sarah Watson may have had her best six-dive meet as well.”
The boys team also had a number of multi-event winners. Dylan Weisenauer won a pair of events on his own, the 50 free and the 100 butterfly. He teamed up with Connor Colston, Case Stevenson and James Elder in the medley relay and with Ethan Taylor, Logan Kropp and Case Stevenson in the 200 free relay.
Colston won the 200 freestyle and set a new personal-best in winning the 100 backstroke, breaking 1:00 for the first time with a time of 59.83. Stevenson won the 200 IM and the 100 breaststroke.
Colston, along with James Elder, Logan Kropp and Ethan Taylor, played a role in the first-place 400 relay as well.
But quality swims weren’t had by only those who finished first.
“Some other kids dropped some decent times,” Moran said. “Roman Contreras dropped four seconds on his 100 fly. Allison Taylor PR’d in her 100 free. Ivan Starkweather dropped two seconds in his 50 free. Trenton Ward dropped 20 seconds in his 500, so that was a good swim. Zach Edmonds dropped three seconds in his breaststroke, which is really good.
“There were some really good swims by the kids.”
The Ross swimmers will be back in action this weekend as they take part in the Northwest Ohio Classic Swimming Invitational.
Girls results
Fremont Ross 121, Perrysburg 78
Fremont Ross First place finishes:
200 medley relay: Faith Zimmerman, Alexis Prenzlin, AnneMarie Moses, Olivia DeRodes, 1:52.65
200 IM: Alexis Prenzlin, 2:18.21
50 freestyle: Olivia DeRodes, 24.73
1 meter diving: Sarah Watson, 175.3
100 butterfly: AnneMarie Moses, 1:00.12
100 freestyle: MaKennah Fitzgerald,
500 freestyle: Olivia DeRodes, 5:24.92
200 freestyle relay: MaKennah Fitzgerald, Maddie Gallagher, Alexis Prenzlin, AnneMarie Moses, 1:42.76
100 backstroke: AnneMarie Moses, 1:05.45
100 breaststroke: Alexis Prenzlin, 1:07.84
400 freestyle relay: MaKennah Fitzgerald, Mara Brown, Maddie Gallagher, Olivia DeRodes, 3:48.67
Boys results
Fremont Ross 119, Perrysburg 92
First place finishes:
200 medley relay: Connor Colston, Case Stevenson, Dylan Weisenauer, James Elder, 1:46.54
200 freestyle: Connor Colston, 1:53.62
200 IM: Case Stevenson, 2:12.74
50 freestyle: Dylan Weisenauer, 22.98
1 meter diving: Dane Michael, 182.9
100 butterfly: Dylan Weisenauer, 54.5
200 freestyle relay: Dylan Weisenauer, Ethan Taylor, Logam Kropp, Case Stevenson, 1:35.93
100 backstroke: Connor Colston, 59.83
100 breaststroke: Case Stevenson, 1:06.83
400 freestyle relay: James Elder, Connor Colston, Logan Kropp, Ethan Taylor, 3:35.13