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Preppers pool together to win championship
(by Tony Lange - February 29, 2012)
Preppers pool together to win championship
By TONY LANGE
Heading into the Division II state swim championships, Dayton Oakwood was seeded to beat University School by 41 points.
After the Preppers won the title the previous three years, they held a new position -- underdogs.
Since boys swimming in Ohio split into two divisions four years ago, University School has always been heavily favored to win, until this season, head coach Brian Perry said.
"Being the underdog was a new spot for us," he said. "So we looked at it and said, hey, our state championship is going to be what we do in the prelims, because, if we don't swim well in the preliminaries, we won't have a chance to win."
After the preliminaries, the Preppers put themselves back on top in the finals seedings to win the meet by three points.
"Our preliminary session was the best I've ever seen in my coaching career. We had everyone swimming lifetime bests," Perry said. "We made up 44 points in preliminaries, which was a significant jump for our boys, and we were in a position to win the state title again."
By the end of the finals, University School edged Dayton Oakwood, 237.5 to 231 points, and the Preppers won their fourth straight title. Meanwhile, Chagrin Falls placed third with 137 points, Hawken School was fifth with 130 points, and Gilmour Academy took 13th with 66 points.
University School's Kevin Stang said the triumph was a complete team effort.
"It was one of the most craziest experiences I've ever had," he said. "No meet has really compared to this. Everyone pulled together, and we won it somehow. It was a crazy feeling to look up and see University School be put ahead of Dayton Oakwood on the scoreboard."
Nine of the 10 University School swimmers who qualified for the meet scored points, which gave the Preppers the boost they needed for the triumph.
The highest placing swimmer for University School was Russell Stack, who was runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.34 and third in the 100 freestyle at 46.53.
Stang placed fifth in the 200 individual medley with a 1:52.94 and third in the 100 backstroke with a 50.28. During the preliminaries, Stang swam a 49.97 in the backstroke, which set a new state record.
"That was one of the craziest feelings. I didn't even expect it," Stang said. "I was thinking I probably had gone about a 51. And then I remember my teammate Alex Ivkovic, who swam next to me, turning and he goes, 'Hey, dude. You got the record.' I looked back up there, and I saw the 49, and it was one of those crazy moments. I was just kind of stunned."
That mark, however, lasted less than 24 hours, as Chagrin Falls' Davis Staley reclaimed the record the following day during the championship finals with a 49.93 swim. The top Division I swimmer this year clocked a 50.53.
"It was overwhelming. I didn't quite catch the scoreboard at first," Staley said. "I first looked across my lane and spotted my teammates jumping up and down, so I had assumed I had won, and then, to look at the scoreboard and see under 50, it was great, because then I knew that the whole season had paid off."
Staley also placed sixth in his 100 butterfly race with a 50.83.
Also standing on the top-eight winners podium during the finals, Staley's teammate Austin Quinn was runner-up in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:30.90 and fourth in the 200 individual medley with a 1:51.44.
Leading Hawken School, Micah Simpson had a pair of runner-up performances in the 200 freestyle, 1:40.65, and the 100 freestyle, 46.38.
While close swim meets usually go down to the final event, the 400 freestyle relay, University School's 200 medley relay, the first event of the meet, was the biggest difference maker, Perry said.
The Preppers were seeded fourth heading into the finals, while Dayton Oakwood was second. The Preppers, however, were able to drop 1.80 seconds and move up to first place with a winning time of 1:35.22 in the finals, which dropped Oakwood to third place in the event.
That was a 10-point swing, and University School ended up winning the meet by less than that margin.
Perry said he made a game-time decision to switch the anchor of that relay to senior Nicholas Gill, who dove in the water 0.23 second behind Dayton Oakwood for the freestyle leg and was able to come from behind to win it.
"That was a turning point in the finals," Perry said. "That really gave us a cushion that we were able to maintain throughout the meet."
Below are state places, events and times of swimmers from University School, Chagrin Falls, Hawken School, Gilmour Academy, Orange and West Geauga who advanced to the state championship top-eight finals and top-16 consolation finals:
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