ONTARIO — Four days late, the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference swimming championships got underway Wednesday at Ontario High School.

Ontario won the boys championship, knocking off four-time defending champion Galion. The Warriors won 164-156, followed by: 3. Shelby- 96 points; 4. Pleasant- 64 points; 5. Buckeye Valley- 58 points and 6. Harding- 37 points.

Galion was third in the girls meet, which also was won by Ontario. Shelby was second,

The Galion boys claimed one relay title and five individual championships.

The 200-yard medley relay grouping of Caleb Strack, Braxton Tate, Clay Karnes and Ben Alstadt swam their way to the title in a time of 1:45.71 to hold off the runner-ups from Shelby (1:54.17).

Galion’s first individual event win came early as Strack earned the title in the 200-yard individual medley with a championship time of 2:13.81. The runner-up in the event was teammate Karnes (2:15.97). In the next event for the boys, Alstadt outlasted the field in the 50-yard freestyle to earn the title in 23.02, edging Harding’s Duncan Beary (23.36).

Later on in the day, Karnes won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 57.60, besting Shelby’s Brycen Burkhalter (57.66). Galion found a lot of success in the 500-yard freestyle with the tandem of Alec Dicus and Tate earning the top-two finishes. Dicus took the championship with a time of 5:21.50 while Tate wrapped his race in 5:27.50. Earning the Tigers final title at the MOAC championships was Strack. Strack swam to first place in the 100-yard backstroke, finshing atop the board with a sub-one minute time of 57.46.

Other results for the Galion boys on Wednesday were: Dicus- 2nd, 200-free; Weston Rose- 3rd, 200-free and 3rd, 100-free; Kyler Ratcliff- 11th, 200-free and 8th, 100-back; Isaac Niedermier- 7th, 50-free and 5th, 100-free; Grayson Willacker- 12th, 50-free and 13th, 100-free; Tate- 2nd, 100-breast; 200-free relay (Tate, Ratcliff, Willacker, Niedermier)- 4th and 400-free relay (Dicus, Rose, Strack, Alstadt)- 2nd.

For the Lady Tiger, one relay team and one individual claimed championships en route to their third-place finish. Both of Galion’s champions also set new, MOAC record times in the process.

In the 50-free, freshman Troie Grubbs took home the top-spot with a new record time of 25.52, outlasting Shelby’s Kassie Stine but the most narrow of margins (25.54). Grubbs also served as the anchor-leg of the Galion 400-free relay team that swam to a title and a new meet record time of 3:53.87. Kaisey Speck opened the event before Sari Conner took over the second 100-yards. Kennedy Speck took the third leg of the race before Grubbs brought it all home for the Lady Tigers. Grubbs, Conner, Kennedy and Kaisey would also team up to earn a third-place finish in the 200-free relay.

Individually for Galion, the four members of the relay team would go on to second or third place finishes in seven events.

Kaisey finished second in the 200-IM and second in the 100-breast while Kennedy earned second in the 500-free and third in the 100-fly. Conner was the runner-up in the 200-free and came in third place in the 100-free on the day. Grubbs rounded out first-team conference honors for the Lady Tigers by claiming runner-up status in the 100-back.

Other placements for the Galion girls on Wednesday were: Danielle Schneider- 7th, 200-free and 9th, 500-free; Kate Wildenthaler- 17th, 200-free and 16th, 50-free; Destiny Yoder- 13th, 50-free and 15th, 100-free; Kiera VanMeter- 17th, 100-free; Ashleigh Wright- 4th, 500-free and 10th, 100-back; 200-medley relay (Schneider, Yoder, Wright, Wildenthaler)- 9th and 200-free relay (Schneider, VanMeter, Regin Kuelhman, Wildenthaler)- 12th.