MARION — Both of the Galion Tigers swimming teams were at the W. Keith Davis Natatorium in the Marion YMCA for the 4th Annual Division II Public School Invitational on Saturday, January 6. The invite was hosted by Mount Gilead.
For the day, the boys squad from Galion would claim the championship with 404 total points to defeat runner-up Upper Sandusky (321). The Lady Tigers came in third place out of 10 teams, scoring 235 points.
Rounding out the field on the boys side were: 3. Pleasant- 259; 4. Bexley- 196; 5. Harding- 185; 6. Mount Gilead- 179; 7. River Valley- 150; 8. Bucyrus- 83; 9. Elgin- 62 and 10. Beechcroft- 16.
Galion’s boys teams would go on to set five new meet records on the day en route to winning 10 of the 11 events.
The day got started with a new meet record in the 200-yard medley relay set by the winning foursome of Caleb Strack, Luke Eisnaugle, Clay Karnes and Sam Rigdon in a time of 1:47.06. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, the team of Ben Alstadt, Eisnaugle, Karnes and Rigdon swam to first place and another meet record in 1:35.80. Galion would make it 3/3 in relay wins and meet records by claiming the title in the 400-free relay with a time of 3:38.39. That championship squad consisted of Weston Rose, Alec Dicus, Alstadt and Strack.
Karnes and Strack would also be a part of the record-setting day in individual events. Karnes set a new meet record in the 200-free with a time of 1:58.73 while Strack won the 100-yard backstroke with a record time of 58.86.
Rigdon won the 200-yard individual medley in a time of 2:14.15, missing his own meet record from last season by .01. Adding to his success on the day, Strack was the champ in the 50-free with a time of 24.19. Karnes won the 100-yard butterfly in 57.72, Rigdon picked up another win in the 100-free (52.53) and Dicus rounded out the first-place finishes for the Tigers in the 500-free (5:20.67).
Other placements for the Galion boys were: Eisnaugle- 4th, 200-IM and 2nd, 100-yard breaststroke; Alstadt- 3rd, 50-free and 2nd, 100-back; Issac Niedermier- 6th, 50-free; Garrett Murphy- 28th, 50-free; Dicus- 5th, 100-fly; Rose- 2nd, 100-free and 2nd, 200-free; Grayson Willacker- 28th, 100-free; Braxton Tate- 2nd, 500-free and 5th, 100-breast; Chris Amick- 13th, 200-free; Zach Slone- 18th, 200-free; Dicus, Tate, Niedermier and Amick- 4th, 200-medley relay; Rose, Niedermier, Amick and Murphy- 9th, 200-free relay; Niedermier, Tate, Slone and Amick- 6th, 400-free relay.
Over on the girls side, the remainder of the field went as follows: 1. Bexley- 364; 2. Upper Sandusky- 348; 4. Pleasant- 201; 5. Elgin- 172; 6. Bucyrus- 156; 7. River Valley- 144; 8. Harding- 129; 9. Mount Gilead- 125 and 10. Beechcroft- 11.
The Lady Tigers would not pick up any victories on the day but did get runner-up finishes from Sari Conner and Allison DeNero. Conner finished in second place in the 200-free on the day, finishing with a time of 2:21.13. Over in the 200-IM, DeNero was the runner-up with a time of 2:34.22.
Relay results for Galion on Saturday were: Ashleigh Wright, Conner, DeNero and Elise Barnhart- 4th, 200-medley; DeNero, Barnhart, Danielle Schneider and Connor- 3rd, 200-free; Kennedy Gifford, Bri Streib, Alison Bauer and Katlyn Kuehlman- 17th, 200-free; Schneider, Wright, Streib and Bauer- 8th, 400-free.
Other individual event placements for Galion’s girls were: Barnhart- 5th, 50-free and 6th, 100-free; Streib- 10th, 50-free and 14th, 100-free; Gifford- 34th, 50-free; DeNero- 4th, 100-fly; Kuehlman- 22nd, 100-free and 16th, 100-breast; Schneider- 12th, 200-free and 13th, 500-free; Bauer- 23rd, 200-free; Wright- 11th, 200-IM and 6th, 100-back; Conner- 7th, 500-free.
A pair of home meets awaits the Tigers in the next calender week. On Monday, January 8, Galion will welcome the Pleasant swimmers for a Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference dual. The Crestline Bulldogs and Wynford Royals will travel to the Galion YMCA for a tri-meet with the hosting Tigers on Wednesday, January 10.
