Heaven swims to 10th-place finish

Y-Neptunes

ROCHESTER, Mich. — Sarah Heaven, 12, emerged as one of the leaders of the Youngstown YMCA Y-Neptunes swimming team at the Great Lakes Zone Championships held last weekend at Oakland University.

Heaven, competing in the girls 11-12 age class, placed fifth in the 50-yard breaststroke (34.34 seconds) and seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.90) — both personal-best times for her this season.

Heaven led the 11-12 girls to a No. 10 finish out of 33 teams — the highest finish of any of the Y-Neptunes’ age groups.

The Y-Neptunes placed 33rd overall out of the 81 teams that scored points in the 93-team field.

“Sarah has worked hard and has been extremely focused all year,” said Neptune coach Sue Mellish. “She went into Zones ready to swim her best and she did.”

Besides Heaven, also swimming a personal-best time in girls 11-12 was Sibel Sarac, 12, who placed seventh in the 50-yard breaststroke (34.45).

Nick Boniface, 17, competing in the senior boys class, placed fifth in the 50-yard breaststroke (28.80) and 10th in the 50 butterfly — both personal-best times.

The Neptunes’ Gina Ungaro, 9, placed ninth in the 9-10 girls 50-yard freestyle (29.42).

Heaven and Ungaro also were members of girls relays that placed in the top 10.

Heaven teamed with Mallory Allen, Olivia Williamson and Zoe Summers to place sixth in the 11-12 200 freestyle relay with their personal-best 1:51.0.

Ungaro combined with Maggie Beistel, Tess Emerson and Madeline Graziano to place 10th in the 9-10 200 freestyle relay in a personal-best 2:05.49 — four seconds faster than their previous fastest time.

The Neptunes’ 9-10 boys also had a relay with two top-10 finishes.

Aaron Coates, Marco DiVincenzo, Tim Kubacki and Seth Morrow placed ninth in the 200 medley relay in a personal-best time of 2:25.55, shaving five seconds off their previous best time.

That same group also placed 10th in the 200 freestyle relay in 2:07.16.