PHOTOS PROVIDED / THE VILLAGE REPORTER
GNOAC SWIM CHAMPIONSHIPS … Nolan Brock (above) of the Bryan Swim Team competes in the boys’ 11-12 age division 50 breaststroke final in the Greater Northwest Ohio Aquatic Conference swim meet held Saturday and Sunday, July 12-13 in Napoleon. Brock would eventually finish fifth in the event with a time of 48.02 seconds.
BRYAN SWIM TEAM
By: John Fryman
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
The summer swim season wrapped up on the weekend of, July 12-13, as the Bryan Swim Team and the Wauseon Wahoos both competed in the Greater Northwest Ohio Aquatic Conference championships held in Napoleon.
Bowling Green Swim Club successfully defended its title with 2,706 points followed by Napoleon Aquatic Club (2,009.50), Bryan Swim Team (1,918), Putnam County YMCA (1,049.50), Defiance/Ayersville Blue Dolphins (814) and the Wauseon Wahoos (641).
“It’s always great to see so many kids come out and just enjoy something that is so unique in this sport,” said Bryan Swim Team head coach Jordan Brown.
“We got six-year-olds on the team and we got 18-year-olds on the team. “It’s a very unique experience that’s unlike any other sport out there.”
The overall depth of the Bryan Swim Team showed its own strength in the conference meet.
That was quite evident especially in the girls’ 8-under division as they claimed seven GNOAC individual and two relay titles.
Bryan’s Cora Pool dominated in the girls’ 8-under division winning four individual titles.
Pool claimed gold in the 25 backstroke (22.47), 25 breaststroke (27.49), 25 freestyle (19.22) and the 25 fly (22.69) along with a runner-up finish in the 50 freestyle (46.12).
Her teammate Addileigh Decker captured both the 50 (44.52) and 100 (1:41.53) freestyle events. She also finished runner-up to Pool in the 25 backstroke, 25 freestyle and 25 fly.
Also in the same age division, Bryan swept both the 100 medley relay (1:53.55) consisting of Quinn Riehle, Maren Stanley, Oakley Downing and Sheniah Miller and the 100 freestyle relay (1:40) consisting of Adah Hughs, Miller, Riehle and Karina Rodriguez.
“Of the eighty swimmers who competed in the meet, 35 girls are under the age of ten,” said Brown. “So that’s always a little bit of an interesting dilemma that we get to come champs time.”
“Sometimes we’re limited to how many people we can have come to champs. They compete and do well.”
Brown pointed out the importance of the older swimmers as role models for the up-and-coming younger swimmers.
“These older kids get to become role models for these younger kids and develop kind of a little bit of fame to themselves,” said the Bryan coach. “It’s a lot of fun across the board, because they get to be coaches to them and help them with things even, we as coaches sometimes can’t do.
The importance of older role models on the Bryan Swim Team was quite evident in the conference finals. One of those swimmers was Nora Kunsman, an incoming Bryan High School senior and a Division II All-Ohioan in last year’s OHSAA state swim meet in the 50 and 100 freestyle events and earning runner-up honors in both events.
Kunsman set a new GNOAC record in winning the 50 freestyle (24.52) that broke a 24-year-old record (24.57) set by Lindsay Zirkle in 2001.
She also won the 100 backstroke (1:02.62) while earning three other fourth place finishes.
Also making a huge splash was Bryan’s Griffin Boehm in the boys’ 13–14-year-old division. Boehm swam to individual titles in the 100 backstroke (1:00.64), 100 freestyle (54.09), 100 fly (1:02.39) and 200 freestyle (1:56.15).
His age group teammate Logan Slattery won three events, 50 freestyle (25.12), 100 breaststroke (1:14.31) and 200 IM (2:19.13). Also winning individual gold for Bryan was Lyla Stanley (11-12 girls) in the 100 breaststroke (39.22).
Other conference relay champs for Bryan included the girls’ 9-10 200 free relay of Savannah Allen, Claire Kunsman, Ivy Mantel and Lydia Sprow (2:43.03); the boys’ 13-14 200 medley relay of Bradley Johnston, Remington Rosebrock, Jason Kendrick and Cooper Myers (3:30.77); and 200 free relay of Kendrick, Myers, Rosebrock and Jadon Erman (2:58.53).
Putting together a successful GNOAC meet lineup is a long process according to Brown.
“It’s a very long process to come up with our lineup,” said Brown. “We take the results from all of our dual meets through the season and then we compare the times that the kids had to last year’s champs times and where we think they will fall.”
“We really want to them to compete at a high level, so we do a lot of research to figure out where you going to compete best and what is going to be best for you.”
For Wauseon, it has been a rebuilding year under head coach Brooke Schuette. “We’re trying to rebuild the program”, pointed out Schuette. “We are looking to work on the little things.”
This summer Wauseon had 70 boys and girls participating, which is one of the highest numbers they had.
Despite its overall conference finish, the Wahoos had one individual champion with Ezri Ankney taking the girls’ 9-10 division title in the 50 freestyle with a time of 32.89 seconds.
“One of the positive aspects is to kind of rebuilding the attitude and the commitment to the sport,” said Schuette. “We’re just trying to re-establish back in how it was back then.”
Schuette stressed several factors, motivation, determination, commitment, grit, as the key elements. “We had a really older group of swimmers go through, but COVID-19 kind of hit and took a toll in the other sports,” said the Wauseon coach.
“We just trying to spring back what it was like before COVID and bringing those traditions back.” The Wauseon coach credited her team improving in each meet this summer.
“Just their determination to getting better and wanting to improve,” added Schuette. “It kind of fell off for a while there and now they’re kind of like ready to get faster.”
Other top individual finishers for Wauseon were Leah Krueger who was second in the 100 free (1:53.56) and 25 breaststroke (32.21); the 100 medley relay of Haddie Nofziger, Krueger, CeCe Roth and Addie Bernath (1:54.39) in the 8-under girls’ division.
The 200 free relay of Silas Woodring, Dillion Norris, Thiago Orellana and Mason Blohm (3:19.03) in the 8-under boys’ division. Zachary Krueger was third (1:17.41) in the boys’ 13-14 division 100 backstroke.