FREMONT – On teams loaded with depth and returning veterans with state meet experience and ambitions, a freshman and a senior making their Fremont Ross varsity swimming debuts stole the show in their team’s respective season-openers.
Faith Zimmerman
Freshman Faith Zimmerman and senior Trey Ickes, both entering their swim season with vastly different experiences and expectations, each turned in attention-grabbing performances as their teams romped to easy duel-meet victories over Sandusky. The girls won by a score of 140-43 while the boys won 137-43.
Though a freshman, Zimmerman has been swimming 10 years at the club level, and said she had no nerves swimming in her first meet for the Lady Giants, and her performances back that up.
Zimmerman clocked a time of 26.39 in the 50-yard freestyle and 1:06.01 in the 100 backstroke, both times exceeded her previous tapered-time best performances and qualified her for the Ned Reeb Invite at Ohio State on Dec. 16.
“I didn’t think I was building up for it but when I was done and I got it, it was a relief, ‘Ok, I got it,’” Zimmerman said. “It doesn’t matter, places, but I was really happy with what I got today.”
Coach Tina Moses is excited to see what else the freshman will do with the entire season ahead of her.
“She was just off (from qualifying for the Ned Reeb) with her tapered time,” Moses said. “For her to come in, after the yardage that we swim every day, and as hard as we’re working in the weight room, and to be able to exceed her tapered time, is really special.”
Ellie Stover
Olivia DeRodes
The girls’ team’s other highlight came from Olivia DeRodes whose time of 54.88 in the 100 freestyle is well ahead of where Moses expected it to be in the first meet of the season.
“Normally we look for them to be around 56,” Moses said. “Last year she was right around 56 at this meet, maybe high 55s. At the end of the season last year she was a 52. (By the end of the year) she should be considerably faster than she swam at the end of the season last year.”
Moses also liked Ellie Stover’s performance in the 500 freestyle, where she clocked a time of 5:50.27.
“She had a great swim in the 500 freestyle. Very confident, strong performance, especially this early in the season.”
As for Ickes, the senior came out for the swim team as a means to improve his pitching arm for baseball season. Tuesday night he clocked a time of 1:04 in the 100 freestyle.
Trey Ickes
Ickes’ swimming debut made coach Phil Moran wish he wasn’t a senior.
“I’m sitting here looking at him going, ‘I wish that sucker had swam four years,’ because I think he could have been a pretty incredible swimmer,” Moran said. “I think he’s going to have a great season.
“For a first-year swimmer with one month of training to go 1:04 is pretty impressive. We had a lot of guys have really good swims in the new group.”
The boys team won every event Tuesday night, while the girls team won all but the 200 individual medley and the 100 butterfly.
“Case Stevenson looked pretty good. Andy Burroughs swam decent,” Moran said. “Austin Kramer won the breaststroke and looked very good considering he’s been sick, a little under the weather.”
But, as will be the case in many of the Giants’ duel meets this season, the teams were more interested in the process, rather than the points. And both teams and coaches liked what they saw.
“It’s a sport based on times and you kind of know going in where they’re going to fall,” Moses said. “They may be a little faster than that, they might be a little slower than that, but there’s not a lot of deviation in swimming, but it was a great first meet.”
Moran said Tuesday’s meet gave his team a reminder of needing to sharpen up focus on the little things in a race.
“Our turns, our approach to the wall, making sure we’re hitting it hard, get a good kick into it, not gliding in, or losing momentum,” he said. “I think our kids get in training mode and those are things we don’t think about until we get into racing. This meet is going to be a good way to remind them to care about those things.”
Girls results
First place finishes:
200 medley relay: Fremont Ross (MaKennah Fitzgerald, Alexis Prenzlin, AnneMarie Moses, Faith Zimmerman), 1:53.82
200 freestyle: Fremont Ross, Olivia DeRodes, 2:03.64
200 IM: Sandusky, Molly Franklin, 2:13.45
50 freestyle: Fremont Ross, AnneMarie Moses, 25.66
1 meter diving: Fremont Ross, Mara Brown, 146.35 points
100 butterfly: Sandusky, Molly Franklin, 59.86
100 freestyle: Fremont Ross, Olivia DeRodes, 54.88
500 freestyle: Fremont Ross, Ellie Stover, 5:50.27
200 freestyle relay: Fremont Ross (Mara Brown, Olivia DeRodes, Rilee Overmyer, AnneMarie Moses), 1:44.59.
100 backstroke: Fremont Ross, MaKennah Fitzgerald, 1:03.14
100 breaststroke: Fremont Ross, Lauren Zimmerman, 1:12.62
400 freestyle relay: Fremont Ross (Alexis Prenzlin, Faith Zimmerman, MaKennah Fitzgerald, Olivia DeRodes), 3:57.21
Boys results
First place finishes:
200 medley relay: 1, Fremont Ross (Dylan Weisenauer, Andrew Evans, Tate Williams, William Taylor), 1:37.28
200 freestyle: 1, Fremont Ross, Ethan Taylor, 2:00.10
200 IM: 1, Fremont Ross, Andrew Evans, 2:05.06
50 freestyle: Fremont Ross, Tate Williams, 24.32
1 meter diving: Fremont Ross, Dane Michael, 231.95
100 butterfly: Fremont Ross, Dylan Weisenauer, 54.53
100 freestyle: Fremont Ross, Tate Williams, 55.13
500 freestyle: Fremont Ross, Mitchell Mullholand, 5:14.94
200 freestyle relay: Fremont Ross (Dylan Weisenhauer, William Taylor, Tate Williams, Andrew Evans), 1:34.49
100 backstroke: Fremont Ross, Dylan Weisenauer, 57.75
100 breaststroke: Fremont Ross, Austin Kramer, 1:09.00
400 freestyle relay: Fremont Ross (Mitchell Mullholand, Ethan Taylor, Noah Detrich, Austin Kramer), 3:44.11