Shawnee sweeps team titles at Invite

WAPAKONETA - As has been the case for the last several years, the Celina-Wapakoneta Swim Invitational has boiled down to a battle between Western Buckeye League rivals Shawnee and Celina.

The 2011 edition of the meet, held at the Wapakoneta YMCA, was no different, as the Indians swept the boys' and girls' divisions in dominating fashion. Shawnee posted a combined margin of victory of nearly 400 points on Celina, which took second in the boys meet and third behind Lima Central Catholic in the girls meet.

That's not to say that Celina, Coldwater and the other Grand Lake Area teams did not come up with some solid efforts in the meet. St. Marys placed eighth in the combined standings with the AquaCavs finishing ninth. New Bremen finished 12th with Minster 13th, Marion Local 14th, Fort Recovery 17th and St. Henry 18th.

Celina got one win on the day, that coming from the girls' side. The Bulldogs' Brooke Mertz dueled with LCC's Megan Scheiwiller in the final heat of the 50-yard freestyle and Mertz finished at 25.59 seconds with Scheiwiller .41 seconds behind in second. Mertz added a fourth-place finish in the 100 free.

Celina's Ashley Coon took home a third in the 200 freestyle and added a fourth in the 100 breaststroke. The Bulldogs' Kandace Eichenauer added a second-place showing in the 500 freestyle. The Celina girls also brought home a second-place finish in the 400 free relay and third-place finishes in the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay.

"That was nice," said Celina coach Matt May of the girls' day in the pool. "Overall, we're looking solid right now. Nobody is tearing it up. We're still waiting on the end of the season taper (cutting of time) and that's yet to come. Kids are getting impatient for that, but it's part of the season.

"Threw some kids into some off events. Ashley wasn't in her best events. Come the end of the season, we'll throw them back into their best events and see what we can do."

Coldwater picked up several strong efforts as well from the girls. Haley Fledderjohann took sixth in the 50 freestyle and seventh in the 100 freestyle, with teammate Jama Brown finishing eighth in the 100 free and ninth in the 100 backstroke.

"We held our own," said Coldwater coach Christine Brown. "There wasn't a lot of outstanding things for the girls."

St. Marys' Kylee Menchhofer came away with a second-place finish in the individual medley and took third in the 500 free.

Rachel Hess paced Marion Local with a ninth-place showing in the 200 freestyle and added an eighth-place effort in the 50 free.

Claire McGowan paced the Minster girls with a 10th-place showing in the 50 freestyle while Sara Hosey took ninth in the 100 butterfly.

The area boys' contingent got wins from Coldwater's Tyler Siefring and St. Marys' Jared Deubler.

Siefring picked up a big win by taking the 100 breaststroke by nearly three seconds with a time of 1:06.77. Deubler edged out Eric Easley of Van Wert to take the 100 backstroke and finished in 58.99 seconds.

AquaCav Zach Dickman swam well in two of his best events, but was edged out both times to finish second. In the 50 freestyle, Dickman was beaten by Shawnee's Josh Vondran by a mere .08 seconds, and in the 100 freestyle, a mere .02 seconds separated him and Shawnee's Zachary Diltz.

"Long day, but we're gearing up to head on to the unofficial MAC (Midwest Athletic Conference) meet and the sectional and districts," said coach Brown. "We're looking to continue to cut on those times and get to where we were last year and beyond."

The Celina boys picked up several second-place finishes. The 200 medley relay took second behind Shawnee. Eric Muhlenkamp took second in the 200 freestyle while Tyus Temple set a personal record in the 100 butterfly while placing second.

"He had his best time ever," said May of his freshman. "He's swimming better than he has before and as a freshman, he's got a lot to look forward to. With Eric, I took him out of a couple events and put him in the 200 to see how he'd do. He fared pretty well."

St. Henry's lone points came from Ryan Goettemoeller, who took 11th in the 100 butterfly.

New Bremen's 200 medley relay came home with a fifth-place showing, while Brandon Meyer added a fourth-place finish in the 100 butterfly. Fort Recovery's top finish came from Marshall Hull with a 12th-place showing in the 100 backstroke and a 12th-place showing by Andy Gray in the 100 breaststroke. Minster's John Tebbe led the Wildcats with an 11th-place finish in the 50 freestyle.