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Area swimmers, divers go sectional
Swimming and diving sectional meets are this week and with that, many area teams set their sights on advancing to districts and state.
In Division I boys, Austintown Fitch and Boardman will be at Canton McKinley High School Saturday, Feb. 11 while Warren Harding will be at Akron University the same day.
For Division I girls, Fitch, Boardman and Canfield will be in Canton at the same meet while Harding is at Akron.
In Division II boys, Canfield, Cardinal Mooney, Crestview, Lisbon, Howland, Hubbard, Jackson-Milton, Poland, Salem, South Range and Valley Christian will all be at Akron on Friday, Feb. 10 at 10 a.m. while Lakeview will be at Spire in Geneva the day.
In Division II girls, Mooney, Columbiana, Crestview, East Palestine, Howland, Hubbard, Liberty, Maplewood, Poland, Salem, South Range, Ursuline, Valley Christian and West Branch will all be in Akron at the ssame time as the boys.
For Boardman, the Spartans are hoping it will be the beginning of their 18th consecutive season sending someone to the state tournament. Those chances look good with seniors Callen Aulizia and Kyle Kimerer both ranked in the top 10 in the state rankings in their respective events.
While the old standard looks to be strong for Boardman, so does the new standard. Freshman Noah Basista and Matt DunLany are in the state rankings as well for the breaststroke and the butterfly events, respectively.
“They’re some outstanding swimmers and a real job to watch,” Boardman head coach Terry O’Halloran said. “We lost two seniors last year but the two freshmen we gained are faster than the seniors we lost.”
The 400 freestyle relay, which the foursome will make up this year, looks to be a strong bet for a deep postseason run as well.
diving
In terms of area diving, it will be hard to beat East Palestine’s Faith Anderson in the area. The senior has committed to dive for James Madison next year and finished ninth at last year’s state meet. If she makes it this year, she’ll have made it all four years as a Bulldog.
“I’m always a little bit nervous but since it’s my last year I’m excited to give it my all,” Anderson said.
Anderson said committing to college took a lot of pressure off this year and she said hopefully it will allow her to focus more on her technique this postseason.
“It’s very nice not having to worry about scholarship money or impressing colleges,” Anderson said.
hitting their stride
The Canfield girls watched their male counterparts compete at state last year. This year a few relay teams are shooting for districts (and whatever comes from that afterwards) while the boys relay teams should be strong once again.
“We got a new coach last year so it kind of took us out of our rhythm until we got more used to it about midway through this year,” Cardinals senior Maggie Brucoli said.
The squad has been not only tapering off their practices to rest up for the postseason, but they’ve been wearing extra outfits while practicing to build up strength, similar to a runner wearing weights as they train.
“Basically we’ll have two suits on and leggings and it feels like we’re going so much slower but you try to make the same times,” Brucoli said. “It helps us go a lot faster.”
smaller squad
While the Fitch program isn’t the largest in terms of numbers, a few individuals should still make a splash in the postseason.
Sophomores Gia Direnzo and Kamryn Pachatsko are swimming strongly according to coach Tina Kubacki while her son Tim and Chris Lawrence are expected to do well in the 100 fly and 100 backstrokes and may square off against each other this week.
“They’re just both competitors,” Tina Kubacki said. “They like to just compete against each other.”