Top YMCA swimmers vie in Great Lakes meet

Eighty-six YMCA teams from five states are participating at Cleveland State.

CLEVELAND — Twenty-nine swimmers representing the Youngstown YMCA Y-Neptune swim team are competing this weekend at the YMCA Great Lakes Zones Championships at Cleveland State University.

Eighty-six YMCA teams from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, and Kentucky are participating this year with more than 1,300 swimmers in attendance.

Swimmers must obtain fast qualifying times during the season to compete at Zones.

“This is the largest Neptune Zone team we have sent in the past 10 years,” Y-Neptunes coach Sue Mellish said.

There are 14 relays and 13 swimmers in at least one individual event. The team consists of swimmers from the tri-county area. In the 15-and-older age bracket, boys competitors include Tom Boniface (50-yard and 100-yard freestyle, 50 and 100 back), Nick Boniface (50 and 100 breast), Jeff Cowles (50 fly) and Michael Henson (100 back).

On the girls side, qualifiers include Ashley Emerson, Stephanie Case and Katie Henson (all in the 50 and 100 fly), Morgan McCarty (50 and 100 breast) and Kara Guyer (50 fly).

Qualifiers in the 11-12 age group are Mikayla Morrow (50 and 100 breast) and Jake Dawson (50 breast).

Swimmers in the 9-10 bracket are Daniela Cabrera (50 free) and Jessie Morrow (50 breast).

Thos swimmers will also compete in relays, as will Brian Cowles, Alex Downie, Rachel Emerson, Ian Harker, Alex Hunt, Chris Hunt, Kayleigh Lavorini, Theresa Mikolay, Kaila Nasci, Ryan Nasci, Alec Santamas, Meryl Schor, Becca Stewart, and Taylor Tofil.

“We are extremely proud of this great group of swimmers,” Mellish said. “They have worked hard all year long and are excited to be representing Youngstown at this huge and very competitive championship meet.”

The swimmers are wearing the “Defend Youngstown” T-shirts worn and made famous by middleweight champion Kelly Pavlik.

For more details, visit www.y-neptunes.com.