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Canfield relay gets another crack at state
Canfield Swimmers
Gallery
By Brooke Meenachan
YOUNGSTOWN
Heading to Canton for the state tournament isn’t anything to new to the Canfield boys swim team. In fact, all four swimmers who qualified for this year’s competition were there last year.
Bobby Kutsch, Lake Bennett, Kamran Sarac and Cullen Brady will have another go-round at racking up some hardware in both the 400 meter freestyle relay and the 200 meter freestyle relay.
“It’s been a crazy experience. My freshman year, we’ve pulled off coming to state in the 200 free relay. Sophomore year, we went back with a 400 free relay, which was even more fun because we were the underdog. This year, we made it in both and we’re looking forward to it,” Sarac said.
The team has been swimming together their whole lives, but this is their first season competing in the same relay together. Cullen joined the three seniors during last year’s season.
“The relationship we’ve formed over this entire year and these past few years is just tremendous,” Sarac said. “We’re always out for each other. We’re always there for each other. We have such a great connection. They’re a wonderful group of guys.”
Kutsch, a sophomore, echoed his teammate.
“I’ve swam with them all my life, so going to state with them is just unbelievably awesome,” Kutsch said. “You know everyone’s quirks, like are they going to have a good swim or a bad swim and things like that.”
The group qualified for state by finishing third at districts with a time of 1:28.06 in the 200 free relay and a time of 3:16.45 in the 400 free relay. Kutsch leads the pack, while Lake and Kamran take up the middle and Cullen anchors. They are seeded fifth in the 200 and eighth in the 400 out of 24 Division II relays in the state.
They all hope to place in the top three in Canton, but think their best chance at landing the top spot is in the 400 meter.
“We want to finish high. We have a good chance of getting first in the 400,” Sarac said. “We believe, but we’re going to need to drop some time.”
Sophomore Jason Paris will step in if for some reason one of the four can’t compete.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s an awesome honor to still be with the team,” he said.
His team is part of the reason he’s headed to the state tournament with them.
“We’re a close knit of boys, us four and Jason, too,” Sarac said. “That’s why we picked him as our alternate — well favored him. It was down to our coach at the end.”
The team is coached by Brian Stahl, a 2011 graduate of Western Reserve. The 24-year-old is no stranger to Canton either.
“It’s a lot easier to relate with that been there, done that type of attitude. I was a state qualifier in 100 freestyle, so it’s awesome to see them make it but then be included in it as their coach,” Stahl said.
Sarac and Brady also qualified in the 100 meter freestyle, placing sixth and seventh at districts.
Brady missed out on individuals last year, so this year is pretty special.
“It’s an amazing feeling to know I’m one of the top 24 guys in division II to make it.” Brady said. “For me, swimming is pretty much my entire life and getting to state pretty much means everything.”
Brady will be seeded 24th while Sarac is seeded 21st.
“It was my goal coming into the season, so I’m really hype about it,” said Sarac.
Stahl is extremely proud of all the hard work this group has put in.
“You’re going six days of practice a week. You’re racking up probably upwards of six thousand yards a day. That’s a lot of mileage day after day,” Stahl said. “For them to go four straight months of this definitely speaks volumes. It’s good to see the hard work finally pays off.”