BOWLING GREEN — Six Galion swimmers and one from Colonel Crawford qualified for the state swim meet this week in Canton during action Friday at the district meet at Bowling Green.
Galion’s foursome of Caleb Strack, Weston Rose, Clay Karnes and Ben Alstadt punched their at-large ticket in the 200-yard freestyle relay at BGSU. The relay squad was fifth in 1:31.17, a season best time for the squad, good for an 17th seed at preliminary qualifying for the state finals. Hunting Valley University School is the top seed at state, with a time of 1:26.41.
To conclude the day’s festivities, Strack, Rose and Alstadt teamed up with Alec Dicus in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Entering the district meet seeded second, the Galion boys were fourth, with a team record time of 3:19.94 to punch their ticket as the 12th seed at state. Cincinnati Seven Hills is te top seed, with a time of 3:11.16.
For the Lady Eagles, their lone representative in Canton will be Cassidy Vogt who went 24.63 in the 50-yard freestyle y, putting her 11th overall at districts and granting her an at-large bid as the 21st seed at state preliminaries. Kaylee Nagel of Napoleon is the top seed, with a time of 23.53.
Toledo St. Ursula Academy dominated the female team standings, finishing with 442 points to far surpass the runner-ups from Napoleon (255). On the boys side, Lexington repeated as district champions, racking up 336 points to blow out Sandusky Perkins (198).
Galion’s girls finished 12th with 59 points while the boys took fourth overall, scoring 137. The Colonel Crawford Lady Eagles finished eighth overall, tallying 83 team points.
Galion swimmers also set some team records, starting with Dicus at 4:57.98 in the 500 freestyle. That time was good for fourth overall and just missed the cut to advance to state. Freshman Troie Grubbs broke a 19-year old record held by assistant coach Jessica O’Brien (Manley) in the 100-yard backstroke, completing the race in 1:01.99, earning 10th place. To finish out the record-breaking day, the 400-free relay team of Kaisey Speck, Sari Conner, Kennedy Speck and Grubbs shattered an 18-year old record with a time of 3:49.17 to finish seventh.
In Galion’s other relays, the 200 medley team of Grubbs, the Specks and Conner finished 13th in 1:56.33 while the boys version, consisting of Strack, Braxton Tate, Karnes and Alstadt finished 11th in 1:43.85. Crawford’s girls 200-medley relay team clocked in at 1:53.32, good for eighth overall to start the meet. The Lady Eagles would finish ninth in the 200-free relay (1:42.61) and 18th in the 400-free relay (3:57.71).
Other placements for Galion on the day were: Conner- 200-yard freestyle, 29th; Rose- 200-free, 9th; Dicus- 200-free, 8th; Karnes- 200-free, 28th; Kaisey Speck- 200-yard individual medley, 12th; Alstadt- 50-free, 7th; Kennedy Speck- 100-yard butterfly, 27th; Karnes- 100-fly, 22nd; Grubbs- 100-yard freestyle, 8th; Conner- 100-free, 27th; Rose- 100-free, 13th; Tate- 500-free, 15th; Strack- 100-back, 5th and Kaisey Speck- 100-yard breaststroke, 13th.
Additional placements for Colonel Crawford were: Katie Hanft- 200-free, 13th; Jayden Ward- 200-free, 16th; Emma Swisher- 200-IM, 21st; Kyle Taylor- 200-IM, 21st; Jillianne Gregg- 50-free, 15th; Madeline Keller- 100-fly, 15th; Vogt- 100-free, 13th; Gregg- 100-free, 20th; Ward- 500-free, 7th; Hanft- 500-free, 8th; Allison Manko- 500-free, 31st; Taylor- 100-back, 22nd; Swisher- 100-breast, 21st; Drew Krassow- 100-breast, 16th and Hailey Ratliff- 100-breast, 30th.
The state meet prelims start Thursday at 5 p.m. The finals are Friday.
