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Comets boys, girls sweep swimming titles
(by Times Staff - February 04, 2009)
Comets boys, girls sweep swimming titles
By TIMES STAFF
The Solon girls' team won seven of the 11 swimming events, including all three relays, last weekend to win the Northeast Ohio Conference Valley Division championships held at the University of Akron. In the boys' competition, the Comets won six swimming titles and received a boost from record-setting diver Michael Keft to grab the team championship as well.
In the six-team Valley Division, the Solon ladies totalled 539 points to finish well ahead of second-place Hudson, which finished second with 421 points. Solon's boys racked up 525 points, while Hudson was second with 417.5 points.
With five state-tested relay swimmers back from last year's girls' squad, the Comets showed that they are poised for a return to the Ohio championships later this month. Coach Mike Davidson sent different relay lineups into the NOC meet, but seniors Paige Duffy and Gretchen Hestley, juniors Maryn Beiganski and Emily Schwartz and sophomore Annie Marquiss all were back for the relay victory parade.
Not only that, Hestley, Biegansky, Besman and Marquiss each captured individual crowns in the conference competition, three of them in division meet records.
Besman set a new mark in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:56.81, which was fast enough to lead the entire field in the 18-team, three-division conference. Not to be outdone, Bieganski's 59.89 finish in the 100-yard butterfly was fastest in the NOC and good enough for the division record. Hestley also finished first overall with a time of 53.76 in the 100 freestyle. Marquiss' winning time of 24.63 in the 50 free was a new division mark and was second best in the conference overall.
All three Solon girls' relays were tops in the NOC, as well as the Valley Division. In the first event, the record-breaking 200-yard medley relay, Hestley led off with the backstroke leg, followed by freshman Brianna Sciara in the breaststroke, Bieganski in the fly and Marquiss in the free to touch the wall in 1:51.13. That was less than half a second off the pace set by last year's seventh-place medley relay at state.
The 400-yard freestyle relay of Bieganski, Schwartz, Besman and Hestley ended the meet with another record, finishing in 3:39.55. The 200 free relay of Marquiss, senior Paige Duffy, freshman Kelsey McRill and Schwartz took first place with a time of 1:40.93, about one second off the ninth-place state time established by Bieganski, Marquiss, Schwartz and Hestley in 2008.
Keft, who took seventh in the state as a freshman last year, outscored the NOC boys' diving field with his record-breaking 462.25 points.
The Comets got double individual swimming victories from junior Terrence Wong and sophomore Jamie Gallagher, who also were members of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay. Wong took the 100-yard butterfly in 53.13, which was best overall in the 18-team conference, and the 100 freestyle in 49.66, which was third overall. Gallagher won the 500 freestyle in 4:56.44 to lead the entire NOC field and won the 200 free in 1:48.99, which was second overall.
Senior Chris Gluvna added a division victory for Solon in the 50-yard freestyle, finishing in 22.09.
Gallagher, who led off the 400 free relay, and Wong, who anchored it, were joined by sophomore Dan Telljohann and senior James Hrivnak to finish in 3:20.40, which was fastest in the conference field, as well as the division.
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