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Hawken swim team wins record 14th state title
(by Tony Lange - February 29, 2012)
Hawken swim team wins record 14th state title
By TONY LANGE
Winning a 14th consecutive state swimming championship last Friday, the Hawken School girls swim team now has more uninterrupted titles in one sport than any other team in Ohio high school history.
The Lady Hawks passed Lakewood St. Edward's wrestling program, which won 13 straight titles from 1997 to 2009. Overall, it was the Lady Hawks' 22nd state swimming championship.
Head coach Jerry Holtrey said the state title record belongs to 14 different teams. "It's not the record of the 2012 team. They contributed one year," he said. "The record belongs to all the teams, starting in 1999. Every team that swam from that point on deserves to get recognized."
During the Division II state meet at Canton McKinley's C.T. Branin Natatorium, the Lady Hawks scored 360.5 points, which bested runner-up Cincinnati Indian Hill's 178 points. Gilmour Academy was fifth with 131 points. Orange was 21st with 23 points.
The consecutive-title mark, however, wasn't the only record broken. The Lady Hawks also broke two individual state records and two relay records.
Hawken's Sarah Koucheki broke her own 100-yard butterfly record both during the preliminary session on Thursday and finals on Friday. As a sophomore last season, she set the state record with a time of 55.22. This year, she swam a 55.00 during her preliminary race and a 54.66 during the finals.
"I was pretty happy about that," she said. "I knew that I had wanted to be in the 54 range at the end of this season, when I started. That was my goal. And to be able to achieve that is great."
Koucheki also won the 200 individual medley with a 2:03.41. It was her second year winning that event and third year winning the butterfly. As a freshman, she placed fourth in the 100 freestyle.
Also setting a new state mark, Hawken's Marissa Cominelli bettered her 2011 record of 55.49 in the 100 backstroke. She swam a 55.19 in this year's preliminaries and a 54.75 in the finals.
Meanwhile, Hawken's Carrie Bencic raced to the wall first in both her 200 and 500 freestyle races. She finished at 1:49.38 in the 200 and 4:52.66 in the 500.
"I was extremely happy, because I knew of all the tough competition that was going to be around, including my own teammates," Bencic said. "So I just decided to give it my all and trust the training that Jerry Holtrey has given me, and I just went after it."
Also winning two individual events, Gilmour Academy's Macie McNichols took the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.41, and the 100 freestyle in 51.07. As a freshman last season, she was runner-up in both of those events.
"I'm so thrilled that I was able to do that," McNichols said. "I'm just so ecstatic that I was able to win the 50 and the 100, and I don't know. I'm just so excited right now."
During McNichols' 50 freestyle, which she won by 0.2 second, she did not know if she had out-touched her nearest opponent immediately after the race, she said.
"I was hoping I had," she said. "I remember seeing her on the flip turn, and she was so close to me, and I was just like, 'I've got to go faster, I've got to go faster,' and into the wall, it was a close finish. When I touched, I knew I had done at least in the top two. But I wasn't entirely sure that I had won until I pushed off the wall to see the scoreboard."
Hawken School won two of the three relay events and broke records in both.
In the 200 medley relay, Cominelli, Lizzie Aronoff, Bencic and Caroline Vexler clocked a 1:45.16. In the 400 freestyle relay, Koucheki, Bencic, Jordan Bitterman and Morgan Cohara clocked a 3:28.52.
"It was phenomenal," Koucheki said. "Our team has worked so hard on those relays, and to go out there and be able to get the record again was great."
To be thought of as at the same level as some of Hawken's past swimmers who have won championships since 1999 is amazing, Bencic said.
"Some of them are the best in the country, the best in the world, and now you get to be able to say that you helped add to the victories that they started," she said. "It's amazing to be able to think that they started it and moved on to such great things, and it's possible for us to do it also."
Below are state places, events and times of swimmers from Hawken School, Gilmour Academy and Orange who advanced to the state championship top-eight finals and top-16 consolation finals:
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