GALION — The Galion Tigers swim teams were in their home pool at the YMCA on Thursday afternoon as they played host to their newest Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference foes, the Shelby Whippets.
Coming off of their holiday break, the boys team continued its dominance within the conference, beating the Whippets by a final score of 68-25. Over on the girls side of the meet, Shelby edged the Galion squad 49-43.
Galion’s boys swept the relays, while also claiming victories in every individual event except the 100-yard butterfly.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Caleb Strack, Braxton Tate, Clay Karnes and Ben Alstadt got the winning started for the Tigers, taking the top spot with a time of 1:50.73. Later on in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the foursome of Alstadt, Weston Rose, Karnes and Alec Dicus won the event in a time of 1:41.25. Galion completed a sweep of the relays when the 400-yard freestyle team of Dicus, Rose, Strack and Tate swam their way to the victory with a time of 3:49.28.
In the individual events, Dicus, Strack and Alstadt would each claim a pair of event wins while Tate picked up a win to lead the way to the victory.
Dicus finished atop the board in the 200-yard freestyle, winning in 1:59.65 and would later win the 500-free in 5:27.99. Strack cruised to a win in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:16.62 and would later earn a victory in the 100-yard backstroke (59.50). Alstadt finished in first in both the 50-free (24.07) and the 100-free (54.18). Tate was the winner in the 100-yard breaststroke, claiming the top finish in a time of 1:13.04.
Other placements for the Tigers in the win were: 200-free relay, 3rd; 400-free relay, 2nd; Rose- 2nd, 200-free and 2nd, 100-free; Karnes- 2nd, 200-IM and 2nd, 100-fly; Isaac Niedermier- 2nd, 50-free and Tate- 2nd, 500-free.
For the girls, they would claim runner-up status in all three relay events while also snagging third in the 200-free relay.
Individual winners on the day included Kaisey Speck, Sari Conner and Troie Grubbs.
Speck was a double-winner, taking the top spot in the 200-IM with a time of 2:24.44 while also winning the 100-breast with a finishing time of 1:12.68. Conner earned the victory in the 100-free, swimming her way to the top in a time of 1:05.77 while Grubbs claimed Galion’s final event win in the 100-back with a time of 1:06.57.
Other placements for the Lady Tigers on Thursday were: Conner- 2nd, 200-free; Grubbs- 2nd, 50-free; Speck- 2nd, 100-fly; Ashleigh Wright- 2nd, 100-free and 3rd, 100-back; Kennedy Speck- 2nd, 500-free and Danielle Schneider- 3rd, 500-free.
The Tigers will head to the Marion YMCA on Saturday, January 5 to compete in the Mount Gilead Invitational before returning to the Galion Y on Wednesday, January 9 for a tri-meet with the Harding Presidents and the Crestline Bulldogs.
