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RV, CHS swimmers set 7 ECOL records at meet

| January 20, 2014
ECOL-Swim-Meet-48

Els, Smith named ECOL swimmers of the year
River View’s Lydia Els and Coshocton’s Marc Smith were named the female and male ECOL swimmers of the year after the ECOL swim meet held Friday evening, Jan. 17 at the Coshocton pool. Els is a junior and Smith is a senior. For a photo gallery visit www.coshoctonbeacontoday.com. (Beacon photo by Mark Fortune)

COSHOCTON – Swimmers from Coshocton and River View set new personal records, team records and slashed seven league records at the ECOL swimming championship meet held Friday evening, Jan. 17 at the Coshocton pool. River View’s Lydia Els and Coshocton’s Marc Smith were named the female and male ECOL swimmers of the year. Els said of the honor, “It feels awesome. I’ve been working real hard. I knew I had to exceed my expectations and everything I did last year to keep getting better and better every year.” Els said in the next two weeks she wants to “Get even faster, and hopefully make state.”

Marc Smith of Coshocton said of the award, “It feels pretty good. I remember sitting as a freshman and seeing some of the times that some of the people swam. I couldn’t believe it. I was two seconds off the ECOL record for the 200 freestyle and when he swam he was a foreign exchange student – everyone said, “How can anyone swim that fast?”, and I was one of those people. Being able to know that I’m as fast as that just kind of – it’s surreal, it’s pretty cool.” Smith said his goal for the next few weeks is, “Last year I was pretty close to making state in the 100 back (stroke) and that’s what the goal is this year. And to make it with my relay team – make it with my friends and myself.”

River View Coach Kristina King said, “It’s been a long time coming, our team has been doing a lot of hard work. Our girls, I think, have been overlooked for a while and I think they’re coming out hard and strong. I’m absolutely pleased with both boys and girls, almost everybody PR’d tonight. We’re doing exactly what we’ve been expecting and what I know that they can do. I didn’t know if they knew they could do it but it’s been great seeing that when they come out of the pool with smiles on their faces knowing that they beat their times.” Going forward, Coach King said, “I expect us to get better and faster.”

Coshocton swim coach Julia Shaw said, “They just made me so proud. It’s amazing to break five school records plus some ECOL records. You couldn’t ask for more than that.” Shaw said, looking ahead, “We’re hoping to go to state.” Speaking about Smith, Coach Shaw said, “The boy is just amazing. He’s just amazing; I don’t know what else to say about him.”

The River View girls finished third with 43 points and the Redskin lady’s came in fourth at 39 points while on the boys side of the ledger the Redskins came in second to Dover with 86 points and the Black Bear male swimmers finished third.

There are 22 events that comprise the meet and local swimmers got off to a strong start, with the Black Bears girls team of Lydia Els, KJ Smailes, Shawna Shroyer and Shelby Mizer placing second in the 200 meter medley relay with a time of 2:22.06, setting a new RV record. Coshocton placed fourth in the event at 2:35.57 with Jacqueline Roman, Georgia Brown, Jenny Simpson and Casey Fortney.

The Redskins male foursome of Marc Smith, Brian Rogers, Alex Wheeler and Bryce Philabaum placed first in the 200 meter boys medley relay with a time of 1:52.05, setting a new ECOL and CHS record. The River View boys placed third at 2:03.85 with Nate Cooper, Dalton Hammond, Brendan Dickson and Trevis Stamper competing for the Black Bears.

River View junior Lydia Els set a new ECOL and RV mark in the girls 200 meter freestyle with a time of 2:14.73, while the Redskins Kaitlyn Salmans placed third with a time of 2:22.59, just missing second.

Coshocton senior Marc Smith finished first in the boys 200 meter freestyle at 2:03.83 with teammate Jacob Blank finishing fifth at 2:22.37.

Senior Alex Wheeler of Coshocton set a new CHS record in the boys 200 meter IM medley with a time of 2:20.48, finishing just behind new ECOL record setter Frannie Brogan of Dover ast 2:18.47. Coshocton teammate Cody McVay placed third at 2:33.99.

River View junior Shelby Mizer placed third in the girls 50 meter freestyle swim at 31.75 and Peyton Bair swimming for the Redskins placed fifth at 32.14.

Bryce Philabaum finished just ahead of two Black Bear swimmers; Brendan Dickson and Dalton Hammond in the boys 50 meter freestyle. Philabaum at 26.51, Dickson 26.92 and Hammond 26.98.

Alex Wheeler placed a strong second in the boys 100 meter butterfly at 1:01.97, garnering 5 points for the ‘Skins team. Wheeler was just behind Daniel Clifford, a junior swimming for the Bishop Rosecrans, who established a new ECOL record at 1:00.87.

On the girls side of the ledger, River View’s Shelby Mizer placed fifth in the 100 meter butterfly, at 1:09.54.

Returning to the pool in his first competitive event of the season, junior Brian Rogers placed first in the boys 100 meter freestyle swim at 56.29, just ahead of River View’s Dalton Hammond at 58.44 and Brendan Dickson at 1:01.60 who placed fourth.

Coshocton’s girls 400 meter freestyle senior swimmer Kaitlyn Salmans placed second in the grueling event with a time of 5:01.89. The Bears Samantha Douglass came in sixth at 5:42.53.

Jacob Blank, swimming for the Redskins, placed third in the 400 meter boys freestyle at 5:10.03.

River View’s girls quad of Lydia Els, Shawna Shroyer, Samantha Douglass and Shelby Mizer placed second and set a new RV record in the girls 200 meter freestyle relay at 2:05.18 with Coshocton’s foursome of Peyton Bair, Casey Fortney, Sydney Ringenberg and Kaitlyn Salmans placing fourth at 2:08.45.

The River View boys squad of Dalton Hammond, Trevor Wine, Trevis Stamper and Brendan Dickson placed second behind Dover in the 200 meter freestyle relay at 1:50.35.

River View phenom Lydia Els set a new ECOL and RV record in the girls 100 meter backstroke at 1:08.66, almost a full three seconds ahead of her seed time. For Els, it continued a strong performance in the pool. The record had stood since 2007.

Coshocton’s senior – and soon to be named ECOL male swimmer of the year – Marc Smith outpaced sophomore teammate Bryce Philabaum by fractions of a second at 1:02.08, setting a new ECOL record –  with Philabaum at 1:03.12. River View’s Nate Cooper placed fifth at 1:11.52.

Redskin lady swimmers Georgia Brown and Casey Fortney placed third and fourth respectively in the girls 100 meter breaststroke, 1:31.62 and 1:33.40.

Coshocton’s Brian Rogers set a new CHS record with a strong third place finish in the 100 meter breaststroke at 1:10.66. Rogers broke a record that had stood for forty years with his feat. Rogers is only a week shy of having appendix surgery and the large crowd applauded his effort.

The Coshocton girls foursome of Peyton Bair, Roman Jacqueline, Sydney Ringenberg and Kaitlyn Salmans finished third in the girls 400 freestyle relay at 4:50.10.

The Coshocton boys squad of Marc Smith, Bryce Philabaum, Alex Wheeler and Brian Rogers set a new ECOL and Coshocton record in the boys 400 meter freestyle relay at 3:49.90, slashing their seed time of 4:07.09.

Regardless of school affiliation, the capacity crowd applauded individual and team efforts, understanding the significance of records being broken and future opportunities for local swimming athletes.

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About the Author ()

I live with my beautiful wife Nancy on a small farm just outside Coshocton. We have been married for thirty two years and have two grown children, Jessica and Jacob. Jessica is married to Aaron Mencer and they are employed with Coshocton City Schools. Jacob is a sophomore at Kent State University. I graduated from River View High School, have a Bachelor’s Degree from North Carolina Wesleyan University and am actively involved with the Roscoe United Methodist Church, serve on several local committees and am a member of the Coshocton Kiwanis Club, having served as Past-President. I love reading, especially military thrillers, the Civil War and history in general. My goal is to write a novel. My wife and I are also AdvoCare distributors and encourage anyone wanting to lose weight, gain energy and better health to explore AdvoCare at our website; www.fortunes4advocare.com. I love the media field, innovative technology and have worked in newspapers for over 30 years – in fact, my first job was delivering newspapers. The Beacon is a dream made possible by the support of this community and a great team. I hope to continue serving Coshocton County for many years.

Comments (1)

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  1. What a nice, inclusive article! Thank you for the recognition of all the hard work of our area swimmers! Good luck to all the swimmers in the upcoming championship meets!