Girls Division I
Upper Arlington Wins Third-Straight Swimming & Diving State Championship
CANTON, Ohio—Upper Arlington swept all three relay events en route to 246 points and a third-consecutive title at the 2017 OHSAA Girls Division I Swimming and Diving State Championships Saturday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium.
The championship marks the twelfth time in the last 15 years the Golden Bears have taken home the state championship trophy in girls swimming and diving.
Upper Arlington led off the night with a record-breaking performance in the 200 Yard Medley Relay. The team of junior Kendra Sheehan, junior Hannah Caldwell, senior Anna Linzell and junior Dakota Elliott finished with a state-record time of 1:41.88. Elliott was the lone Golden Bear to win an individual event, taking home the title in the 200 Yard IM with a time of 2:00.57.
The second relay victory came in the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay when the team of Caldwell, Linzell, senior Brooke Brown and senior Katie Trace finished with a time of 1:34.51.
With only a ten-point lead over Mason going into the last event, the team of Sheehan, Trace, Elliott and senior Anna Fischer put a stamp on Upper Arlington’s three-peat with a win in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:24.93. The Golden Bears finished with a total of six top-five finishes for the meet.
Mason took home state runner-up honors for the second straight year with a total of 230 points. Junior Allison Blobaum won the 200 Yard Freestyle (1:47.65) and the 500 Yard Freestyle (4:50.15). Senior Ashley Volpenhein won the 100 Yard Freestyle for a third straight year with a time of 50.24. The Comets finished second in each of the three relay events and claimed a total of seven top-five finishes for the meet.
Freshmen Hannah Bailey of Dublin Coffman earned the girls Performer of the Meet honor for her achievement in the 100 Yard Breaststroke. Her winning time of 1:01.76 dethroned reigning champion and current state record- and pool record-holder Hanna Gresser of Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit.
Sophomore Maycey Vieta of Gahanna-Lincoln won the 2017 Div. I diving competition with a total score of 455.45.
Boys Division I
Cincinnati St. Xavier Wins Ninth-Consecutive Swimming and Diving State Title
CANTON, Ohio—Cincinnati St. Xavier broke state records in every relay event and had numerous outstanding individual performances on its way to a ninth-straight and 38th overall state championship at the 2017 OHSAA Boys Swimming and Diving State Tournament Saturday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium.
The Bombers scored a total of 434 points, breaking their own state record of 398 from 2016. It’s the first time a team has eclipsed the 400-point mark in an OHSAA Boys Swimming & Diving State Championship.
St. Xavier wasted no time in starting its title defense, winning the first three events of the night. The team of senior Luke Sobolewski, senior Charles Leibson, junior Justin Grender and junior Nicholas Perera won the 200 Yard Medley Relay with a time of 1:29.66, breaking their own state record from 2016. Senior Grant House won the 200 Yard Freestyle for the fourth straight year, breaking the 26-year-old state record with a time of 1:34.59, earning him the honor of boys Performer of the Meet. The Bombers also claimed the top two spots in the 200 Yard IM, with Perera in first place with a time of 1:48.94 and Leibson taking second with a time of 1:49.56.
Sobolewski went on to claim the top spot in the 100 Yard Butterfly for the second straight year with a time of 48.30. He also won the 100 Yard Backstroke with a time of 48.23.
House continued his record-setting evening by breaking a 10-year state record and 40-year pool record in the 500 Yard Freestyle with a time of 4:19.15.
The second of three relay wins came when the team of Perera, Leibson, Grender and House won the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay with a state-record time of 1:21.44.
The Bombers closed out the night with a win in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay. The team of House, Perera, Sobolewski and Grender broke St. Xavier’s own state record from 2016 with a time of 2:58.13. It was House's 13th individual and relay state championship, setting a new state standard.
Cleveland St. Ignatius finished in second place with 173 points. It’s the Wildcats’ third state runner-up finish in school history and first since 2000. St. Ignatius finished second in both the 200 Yard Medley Relay and the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay. The Wildcats finished with a total of five top-five finishes for the meet.
Sophomore Lyle Yost of Shaker Heights took home the gold in the 2017 Division I diving competition with a total score of 531.10. Yost finished in second place as a freshman in 2016.
Girls Division II
Gates Mills Hawken Claims 19th-Consecutive Girls State Swimming Title
Hawken owns most championships of any girls sports program in Ohio history with 27
CANTON, Ohio—Gates Mills Hawken continued its long string of dominance after winning the 2017 OHSAA Division II Girls State Swimming and Diving State Tournament Friday evening at the C.T. Branin Natatorium.
Hawken’s 19 straight titles is now the third longest active streak of consecutive girls swimming state championships in the country behind Jacksonville Bolles, FL (26) and Carmel, IN (32).
The Hawks dominated from the start en route to their final point total of 305. They won the first event of the night—the 200 Yard Medley Relay—with the team of senior Crile Hart, junior Spencer Crawford, sophomore Libby Miller and freshman Bainon Hart. They tied the state record of 1:44.22 set by Granville in 2013.
Hart continued the record setting for Hawken in the 200 Yard IM—an event she won all four years in high school—by breaking her own state record with a time of 1:59.58. Hart also won the 100 Yard Backstroke with a time of 54.24
The Hawken girls closed out the night in the same fashion they started it by claiming the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay title. The team of C. Hart, B. Hart, Crawford and junior Portia Del Rio Brown finished with a time of 3:28.00. The Hawks finished the meet with eight top-three finishes.
Columbus School for Girls finished second with a total score of 167. It’s the Unicorns’ second state runner-up finish in school history, the first coming in 2015. Senior Miranda Donley won the 50 Yard Freestyle for the third straight year with a time of 22.49. Because of her outstanding effort in that event, she took home the girls Division II Performer of the Meet honor. Donley also won the 100 Yard Freestyle with a time of 49.41. The Unicorns set a state record in the 200 Yard Freestyle Relay when the team of Donley, freshman Jordan Aurnou-Rhees, sophomore Alicia Donley and senior Maggie Wagenbrenner finished with a time of 1:34.45.
After top-three finishes in her two previous state diving championship appearances, junior Kamryn Goodrick of Chesterland West Geauga won the girls Division II diving competition with a score of 468.30.
Gates Mills Hawken Wins Third State Swim Title
Hawks claim their first swimming state championship since 1989
CANTON, Ohio—Gates Mills Hawken took home its third boys state swimming championship and first since 1989 at the 2017 OHSAA Division II Swimming and Diving State Championships Friday evening at the C.T. Branin Natatorium.
Domination of the relay events helped the Hawks to their final point total of 230. Hawken won two of the three relay events and finished second in the third.
The Hawks started off the night hot with a win in the 200 Yard Medley Relay. The team of sophomore Isaac Esposito, senior Matthew Rakovec, junior Zeb Hart and junior Calvin Tecson finished with a time of 1:33.92.
Hawken also won the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:08.09 on the backs of Hart, Tecson, Rakovec and sophomore John Byrne. Their second place finish came in the 200 Yard Freestyle when Tecson, Byrne, junior Michael Pioro and sophomore Justin Flores finished with a time of 1:26.84. The Hawks finished with a total of five top-three finishes.
Cincinnati Seven Hills finished second with a total score of 171. The Stingers did not have any first-place finishes, but did complete the meet with two top-three finishes.
Junior Cody Bybee of Bellbrook took home the Div. II boys Performer of the Meet award for his effort in the 200 Yard Freestyle. Bybee finished with a time of 1:34.55, which broke his previous state record from 2016 and also broke the pool record set by Cincinnati St. Xavier’s Joe Hudepohl in 1991. Bybee also broke the state record and pool record in the 100 Yard Butterfly with a time of 46.97.
After a runner-up finish in 2016, junior Noah Vigran of Cincinnati Indian Hill won the boys Division II diving competition with a state-record score of 534.00.