Boardman swimmers impress at NEAC championships

The Boardman High School swim team won one individual conference swim title and one relay conference title in this year’s NEAC Championship Swim Meet at Wooster High School.

In the overall, results the boys teams placed 2nd in the seven team conference while the girls finished in fourth place.

Leading the boys with a first-place finish in the 100-backstroke (57.65) was Junior Co-captain Michael Henson.

“The boys placing second in the team scoring was a shocker,” Coach Terry O’Halloran said. “We were only nine points away from beating Wooster. Michael Henson had a clutch win in the 100 backstroke just after swimming the 200 free relay. It is difficult to go fast in back to back events but Henson is one of our hardest workers at practice and we knew he could do it.”

Leading the girls was the 200 freestyle relay made up of freshman Colleen Manning, sophomore Emily Bodamer, junior Ashley Aldan and senior Megan Barringer.

The girls were seeded in last place, dropped 5 seconds, and took the conference title in the time of 1:45.60.

“The 200 relay was the most exciting race of the day for our girls,” O’Halloran said. “No one was even watching them in the outside lane and they beat the field by a whole body length. It was great to see Aldan on the anchor again after a long rehab for several injuries. Manning had a great split on the relay and also placed second in the 100-back, missing first by less than a second.”

The top eight swimmers in each event automatically qualify for the 2010 NEAC All-Star Team.

Boardman had 18 swimmers make this year’s all-star team: Jessica Gonda, who placed 3rd in the 100 butterfly, Colleen Manning, who placed 2nd in the 100 backstroke, and Michael Henson, who placed 1st in the 100 backstroke.