Bulldog Swimmers Dive Into Season Splitting With Brunswick

The Bulldogs Swim and Dive Team kicked off the 2012 swim season at Brunswick on Tuesday, December 5th.  Both the boys and girl’s teams are coming into this season with high expectations.  The boys prevailed 117-65 and the girl’s came up short 110-75.  Each team had terrific swims throughout the meet.  Stow boys are coming off of an excellent season last year finishing second place in the River Division.  

The girls are hoping to climb the ranks as this season progresses.  This was Coach Dan Reese’s first meet and he along with the rest of the staff and team had their competitive juices flowing as the meet began.  Both teams were a little nervous, but once they hit the water it was game on.  “Our hard work in the first month of the season paid off and will continue to pay off as we enter the busy part of our schedule.  We had several personal best swims for both the boys and girls teams.” said Coach Reese.

The boy’s team was lead by returning MVP junior Cody Vantrease and senior Jacob Earle with two individual first place finishes.  Vantrease took first in the 100 Free 50.79 and the 200 Free 1:53.77 and Earle took first in the 200 IM 2:12.94 and in the 100 Breast 1:05.30.  Coach Reese commented, “Cody swam smart races today and Jacob’s times are right were we want him to be at this part of the season.”  Vantrease and Earle also helped lead the 200 Medley Relay 1:54.02 and the 200 Free Relay 1:37.50 to first place finishes along with junior Schuyler Morris and senior Cameron Potter. 

The boys 200 Medley Relay team of junior Calub Studt, sophomore Alex Cremer, sophomore Shane Riddle and freshman Travis Delker took 3rd 2:03.27.  Riddle finished 2nd in the 200IM 2:24.39.  Coach Reese said, “Shane Riddle has been putting in hard work everyday in practice and I am excited to see that he had personal best times.” 

Sophomore Josh Pflug took first place in the 50 Free 24.05.  Senior divers Will Shepard 150.75, Parker Gabriel 114.30 and Jeff Byrne 96.10 took the top three places respectively.  Potter took first in the 100 Fly 1:03.18.  In the 500 Free Riddle took 2nd 5:39.89. 

Stow swept the first three places in the 100 Back with sophomore Corey Dyer 1:11.42, Studt 1:11.89 and Morris 1:13.52. Cremer took 2nd in the 100 Breast 1:15.46.  Scoring 4th place finishes were sophomore Max Bauer 2:12.98 in the 200 Free, Cremer 2:34:44 in the 200 IM, sophomore Logan Burgess 25.79 in the 50 Free, Delker 1:17.03 in the 100 Fly and 6:01.97 in the 500 Free, and junior Curtis Henry 1:01.32 in the 100 Free. 

Scoring a 5th place finish junior Eddie Allshouse 25.83 in the 50 Free.  Finishing out the scoring for the Bulldogs with 2nd and 3rd place finishes were the 400 Free Relay teams of freshman Akiejan Gabbas, Pflug, freshman Isaac Lumley and senior Ethan Schur 4:30:33 and Dyer, Studt, sophomore Logan Burgess and senior Willy Donahue 4:32.13.

“Maddie Dyer led the way and set the tone for the girl's team with a great swim in the 200 yard freestyle and kept it going with a great effort in the 500 free.” said Coach Reese.

Also giving the girl’s team a terrific boost was junior Ainsley Wilbur.  Wilbur took 1st in the 200 IM 2:26.05 and 2nd in the 100 Fly 1:07.05.  Wilbur also helped the 200 Medley Relay team of returning MVP sophomore Kelsey Wenk, junior Jenni Heid and junior Tori McCauley to a first place finish with a time of 1:59.33.  In the 200 Free Dyer 2:07.19 and junior Lindsey Adkins 2:09.88 took 2nd and 3rd.  Sophomore Kelly Vantrease 2:27.24 took 2nd  in the 200 IM.  McCauley 26.52 took 3rd in the 50 Free.  Junior diver, Sierra Clark 103.19 and freshman diver Erika Delker 86.80 took 2nd and 3rd. 

In the 100 Free McCauley 57.43 and Wenk 57.77 took 2nd and 3rd.  Dyer took 2nd in the 500 Free with a time of 5:39.20.  In the 200 Free Relay Adkins, Vantrease, Dyer and Heid took 2nd with a 1:47.84.  Wenk took third in the 100 Back with a time of 1:07.28. 

Heid 1:15.08 took 2nd in the 100 Breast.   Scoring 4th place finishes were Heid 26.62 in the 50 Free, senior Frances Haas 71.25 in diving and Freshman Gretchen Evan 1:18.16 in the 100 breast.  Scoring 5th places were sophomore Kirsten Earle 1:14.88 in the 100 Fly, sophomore Taylor Lewis 6:42.94 in the 500 Free and sophomore Erin Fenwick 1:17.03 in the 100 Back. The 400 Free Relay 3:56.21 of Adkins, McCauley, Vantrease and Wenk rounded out the scoring with a 2nd place finish.

Reese concluded, “I am excited for our team right now, this meet showed that our team focus of strong walls and turns is paying off.  Our upper classmen are right were we want them right now and our underclassmen are stepping it up everyday in practice, this showed at Brunswick.”

Next up for the Bulldogs is WRA next Tuesday, December 11 at WRA.