MANSFIELD — Saturday was a busy day for the Galion High School swimming Tigers. The Tigers were at Frank Bartholow Natatorium at Malabar Middle School competing in the Northwest District Mansfield sectional swim meet with their eyes on a district competition berth Friday at Bowling Green State University (3 p.m. start time).
“This is one of the best sectional meets the Galion teams have experienced. Fifteen swimmers qualified and of the fifty-four swims, thirty-four of them were season best times. After a week of injury and sickness, the Tigers’ teams came through,” said Galion head coach Ted Temple.
The boys from Galion were named the team champions of the sectional tournament, scoring 418 points on the day. Galion will be sending 11 swimmers to compete in individual events on Friday, as well as all three relay teams.
Eli Skaggs won the 50-yard freestyle (22.50) and finished second in the 100-yard freestyle (49.61) to move on in the postseason. Sam Rigdon will be joining Skaggs in these two events after earning fourth in the 50-free (23.14) and fourth in the 100-free (51.76). Caleb Strack also qualified for districts in the 50-free with a ninth place finish (24.00) and will also swim in the 100-yard backstroke after finishing third overall (59.28). Ben Alstadt is the fourth Galion teammate to qualify for districts in the 50-free (24.29) and will also swim in the 100-back after finishing seventh (1:02.71). Landon and Weston Rose both qualified in the 100-free and 200-yard freestyle events. L.Rose picked up eighth in the 100-free (53.20) and W.Rose, 11th (54.38). In the 200-free event, L.Rose finished fifth (1:58.21) and W.Rose sixth (2:01.82). Clay Karnes will join Landon and Weston in the 200-free after finishing fourth (1:56.87) and will also swim in the 500-yard freestyle after he won the event with a time of 5:11.36. Lucas Connor, Braxton Tate and Alec Dicus will join Karnes at districts in the 500-free. Connor finished fifth on Saturday (5:37.07), Tate finished eighth (5:41.80) and Dicus finished second behind Karnes in 5:13.50. Dicus also qualified to swim at BGSU in the 100-yard butterfly by finishing third overall with a time of 1:02.36. Luke Eisnaugle is the final individual districts qualifier for the Galion Tigers. Eisnaugle will be swimming in the 100-yard breaststroke after finishing sixth overall (1:11.27) and in the 200-yard individual medley after taking home a fourth place finish in a time of 2:18.33.
Galion’s boys were the champions of the 200-yard medley relay, earning the victory with a time of 1:44.34. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Galion took second place (1:34.20). The final race of the day, the 400-yard freestyle relay, saw Galion moving on to BGSU by finishing fourth overall with a time of 3:37.75.
Other swimmers in action on Saturday for the boys were:
200-yard freestyle: 8. Conner; 100-yard backstroke: 22. Garrett Murphy; 100-yard breaststroke: 10. Tate and 14. Isaac Neidermier; 100-yard butterfly: 6. Neidermier.
The girls squad for Galion had their share of success on Saturday afternoon as well. The Lady Tigers’ swim team will be sending two individual swimmers and two relay teams on to districts.
Allison DeNero and Bri Wallis will be competing for the Tigers in individual races at BGSU on Friday. DeNero placed sixth overall in the 100-yard freestyle (58.74) and third in the 200-yard individual medley event (2:24.67). Wallis will continue her season after finishing fifth in the 500-yard freestyle (5:58.32),and the 100-yard backstroke, where she finished third (1:07.19).
Galion’s 200-yard medley and 200-yard freestyle relay teams will be advancing as well. The 200-medley relay team finished fifth overall with a time of 2:05.50 and the 200-yard freestyle relay team took fourth with a time of 1:49.73.
Other Lady Tigers swimming at Malabar were:
50-yard freestyle: 17. Elise Barnhart, 25. Danielle Schneider, 27. Bri Streib and 33. Harmony Lohr; 100-yard freestyle: 11. Sari Conner, 16. Barnhart and 31. Streib; 200-yard freestyle: 6. Conner, 13. Ashleigh Wright, 18. Schneider and 25. Katlyn Kuehlman; 500-yard freestyle: 11. Alexis Link and 19. Allison Bauer.
100-yard backstroke: 10. Wright, 18. Lohr and 22. Bauer; 100-yard breaststroke: 11. Link and 20. Kuehlman; 400-yard freestyle relay: finished in sixth place with a time of 4:41.86.
