Jiangs lead area swimmers at state

After falling just short the previous two years, New Bremen swimmer Annie Jiang is heading to the state tournament. And her younger brother is coming along.

Annie and Andy Jiang each qualified with an at-large bid, with Annie advancing in the 200-yard freestyle and Andy competing in the 100 butterfly.

"They have their moments when they drive each other nuts, then they have moments when they really are there to support each other and help each other out," New Bremen coach Cresta Ritter said. "I would probably say for the most part, though, they are very supportive of each other."

The preliminary competition for Division II swimming starts at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, with the top 16 finishers advancing to the final at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Annie Jiang, a junior, comes in seeded 21st of the 24 qualifiers after finishing with a 1:58.69, good for third at the Division II Bowling Green districts. In her other main event, the 500 free, she missed out on an at-large bid despite finishing 6th in the Bowling Green district with a personal record time.

"Being a junior, she's wanted to make it to start her last two years, and she's just missed out by 10ths of a second in her 200 in the past," Ritter said. "Her goal this year was to focus on getting into state, whether it be in the 200 or the 500 that she swims. She's worked really hard to get her splits down and things like that, to show where she needed to be to get into state."

Andy Jiang came in seventh with a 53:13 in the butterfly at district, but got an at-large bid and comes in 20th of the 24 state qualifiers. He placed fourth in the 100 backstroke, but fell short of qualifying.

As a freshman, Andy Jiang's early success hasn't been a shock to Ritter, who was aware of him in middle school while she was coaching Annie.

"I kind of had a feeling where he should be, competitive-wise," Ritter said. "I kind of expected him to make it into state this year with one of his strokes, but that's always just a matter of, do they progress during the season? You don't want to set the bar too high for them coming in, all the expectations. But it was a goal of mine to have him qualify, and I'm sure it was one of his too."

Swimming together on the varsity team for the first time, the Jiangs have led the New Bremen squad all year, with Annie leading the way on the girls team and Andy helping to pace the boys.

"I don't want to say that they work together to feed off each other, but they help each other and encourage each other, because they both swim completely different strokes," Ritter said. "So what Annie trains for in her long distance is what Andy does for his backstroke. The support and the competition is there for each other, but like I said, they have their typical brother-sister moments too."
Roughriders send three swimmers, two relays

St. Marys Dylan Hertenstein will be among the first area athletes competing at Branin Natatorium this week, joining Coldwater's Austin Ebbing and Celina's Brock Walley in the Division II boys state diving competition on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Hertenstein, a sophomore who follows his older brother Austin as a diver for St. Marys, took to diving over the summer almost as a lark. Now, a year after Austin's high school career ended with a 13th-place finish at districts, Dylan is heading to Canton after an eighth-place finish.

"He literally was just messing around on a board this past summer and was like, 'Huh, I might be pretty good at it,' " St. Marys coach Hannah Pfeifer said. "So then he started working more and more throughout the season. In the beginning he couldn't even do the full 11 dives. So for him to be able to complete 11 dives and also go to state, that was pretty impressive."

Two St. Marys swimmers, sophomores Griffin Luebke and Reese Triplett, are also making their first trips to state. Luebke advanced in two events, the 100 breaststroke and the 200 IM, with Triplett joining him in the 200 IM.

Luebke narrowly missed out on qualifying last year in the breaststroke, his main event, but earned an at-large bid this year with a time of 1:00.97 in districts, coming in 0.52 seconds over the cut-off.

"For him to be able to make both individual events is pretty impressive," Pfeifer said. "He's just pumped and psyched to go into that, knowing that all his hard work paid off this year."

Last year, the coaches had Luebke take a more conservative approach to tapering, which is cutting back on training to prepare for the tournament, but this year Pfeifer is optimistic that Luebke can handle a more aggressive plan.

"With him being the type of athlete he is, I do think he can benefit from a little longer taper," Pfeifer said. "So another week of resting and prepping, he might be able to drop a little more time and get to the state championship meet under that level of talented competition."

The Roughriders will also send two boys relays, the 200 medley and the 200 free, to Canton. The 200 free relay just barely qualified, coming in at 1:31.69 at Bowling Green to earn the 24th and final place.

The two relays feature Luebke and Triplett along with Jaxton Spees and Connor Milner.

"Throughout the season, there was always at least one kid that was out for COVID, sickness, flu, some other school event," Pfeifer said. "For them to actually come together, not having many opportunities to swim together, was pretty impressive, and for them to turn around and drop time in districts was also really impressive."

Minster's Lucas Stammen also qualified in Division II with a time of 21.62 in the 50 free, good for 10th among the state qualifiers, while the Coldwater girls advanced the 200 medley relay to Canton with a time of 1:53.68.