NAPOLEON – Ross’ swim teams got an early look at where they stand in regard to the Northwest Ohio Aquatics Conference Saturday at the NWOAC Relays. The Little and Lady Giants certainly hope Saturday is an indication of what’s in store for them at the league’s end-of-season meet. The girls team took first-place by a 24-point margin over second-place Napoleon while the boys squad picked up eight points in the final relay of the day to overcome a four-point deficit and won the boys’ competition by four points over Southview.
Girls dominate competition
The Lady Giants won all but two events Saturday and in the events they did not take first, they finished second.
Olivia DeRodes
“All those relays, one of the cool things is we had at least one freshman in every relay,” coach Tina Moses said. “None of those relays were our true, four fastest. It was cool we were able to mix things up and there were able to perform the way they did.”
Part of Moses’ motivation for putting so many young swimmers into the action was a belief they could perform at a high level in a competitive meet, but also to show the youngsters themselves what they were capable of.
“A lot of those freshmen are going to be swimming right alongside these girls that were state qualifiers, district qualifiers,” Moses said. “I wanted them to start swimming on relays together and realize, ‘I can step it up and I want to be a part of a relay.’”
The Lady Giants got top swims Saturday from Olivia DeRodes’ 200 freestyle time of 1:59.76 as part of the 800 relay; AnneMarie Moses’ 100 fly and Alexis Prenzlin’s 1:08 in her 100 leg of the breaststroke relay.
But Moses said the day’s best swim came in the event’s only individual event, a 500 freestyle in which DeRodes won with a time of 5:24.82.
“That was an amazing swim, especially this time of year,” Moses said. “With Olivia, I haven’t decided if we’re going to focus on sprinting or distance, but her 500 free definitely showed me either one is a possibility,”
While the NWOAC’s end-of-season meet is a much different event, Moses believes winning the relays makes the Lady Giants a favorite to win the league championship.
“I think it definitely does, it shows we’re capable,” Moses said. “It’s a totally different meet at the end of the season, but winning this meet makes me excited about what’s to come.”
Depth carries boys team to win
Trailing Southview by four points heading into the meet’s final event, the Little Giants had ground to make up. But Southview had run out of swimmers, as individuals can only swim in three events, so when the Little Giants’ 400 freestyle relay team of Noah Detrich, Noah Hotz, Braedyn Price and Noah Metzker finished third in the event, they picked up eight points and vaulted Ross into first place.
“The boys team stepped up pretty good, a lot of the younger guys stepped up and showed a lot of improvement,” boys coach Phil Moran said. “We swam pretty good and we’re happy with that.”
Ross’ depth carried it to victory as the Little Giants only finished first in two events. Andrew Evans, Tate Williams and Ethan Taylor won the 300 medley relay and Drew Edmonds, Austin Kramer, Williams and Evans won the 300 breaststroke.
“Probably the best relay we put in the water was our breaststroke relay, where we’re pretty strong,” Moran said. “We kind of ran away with that one.
“(Winning,) that was the depth,” he added. “A lot of the newer guys really stepped up and had some really good swims for this time of the year.”
Prior to the start of the season, Moran said Southview would be Ross’ biggest threat in trying to defend it NWOAC championship from last season. Saturday reinforced that view.
“They’re going to be tough,” he said. “The thing we have going for us is our size. They were shorthanded.
“We won by four points so, quite honestly, every relay scored on our team so without that, we would have lost. It was a team win. We needed everybody to do that.”
NWOAC Realys Results
GIRLS
Team scores: Ross 120; Napoleon 96; Wauseon 54; Southview 46; Oak Harbor 24; Perkins 24; Sandusky 22; Port Clinton 20; Northview 20; Notre Dame 14.
First place finishes
400 medley relay: MaKennah Fitzgerald, Lauren Zimmerman, AnneMarie Moses, Rilee Overmyer, 4:43.77
300 medley relay: Shelby Level, Mara Brown, AnneMarie Moses, 3:34.32
300 butterfly relay: Rilee Overmyer, Hannah Widman, Shleby Level, AnneMarie Moses, 3:08.25
500 freestyle: Olivia DeRodes, 5:24.82
300 backstroke relay: Ellie Stover, Mara Brown, Faith Zimmerman, MaKennah Fitzgerald
300 breaststroke relay: Hayley Wilson, Shelby Level, Lauren Zimmerman, Alexis Prenzlin, 3:30.29
400 freestyle relay: MaKennah Fitzgerald, Faith Zimmerman, Rachel Haitonic, Olivia DeRodes, 3:53.97
Second place finishes
800 freestyle relay: Alexis Prenzlin, Rachel Haitonic, Ellie Stover, Olivia DeRodes, 8:37.68
200 freestyle relay: Alexis Prenzlin, Rilee Overmyer, Lauren Zimmerman, Faith Zimmerman, 1:47.94
BOYS
Team scores: Ross 90; Southview 86; Perkins 58; Wauseon 54; Napoleon 28; Port Clinton 22; Oak Harbor 20; St. John’s 18; Sandusky 18; Northview 14; Ayersville 2.
BOYS
First place finishes
300 medley relay: Andrew Evans, Tate Williams, Ethan Taylor, 3:18.02
300 breaststroke relay: Drew Edmonds, Austin Kramer, Tate Williams, Andrew Evans, 3:09.29
Second place finishes
400 medley relay: Tate Williams, Andrew Evans, Dylan Weisenauer, Mitchell Mullholand, 2:49.77
200 freestyle relay: Noah Hotz, Noah Detrich, Austin Kramer, Noah Metzker, 1:40.86
300 butterfly relay: Austin Kramer, Mitchell Mulholland, Ethan Taylor, Dylan Weisenauer, 2:52.18
300 backstroke relay: Noah Detrich, Andy Burroughs, Ethan Taylor, Dylan Weisenauer, 3:02.41