Circleville and Teays Valley face off at Mid-State League Swimming Invitational
On a frigid winter morning when cars were frozen in below zero temperatures outside, inside the New Albany High School Natatorium the water was warm and the air charged with excitement. Swimmers from 12 schools braved the elements to offer their best starts, quick turns, fast races, and split-second finishes at the first ever Mid-State League Swimming Invitational, held January 31st. Circleville and Teays Valley faced formidable opponents in three of the schools, Bexley, Granville, and New Albany, known for being state qualifiers in the swimming arena. As it turned out, the MSL meet provided glimpses of what’s ahead at the upcoming Sectional and District Championship meets.

Competition began in the 200 medley relay for the girls, with Teays Valley’s team of Page Zollinger, Allison Stir, Margaret Stallman, and Rachel Sherman finishing 6th with a time of 2:20.70. Circleville’s team of Katherine Foster, Prae Puthornjai, Aimee Harber, and Creigh Peters turned in a time of 2:29.95, bringing home 7th place. Circleville (Foster, Peters, Harber, and Puthornjai) would later return the favor to Teays Valley in the 200 yard freestyle relay, by out-touching the Vikings to take 5th place with 2:13.83. Teays Valley’s relay of Alex Jeanneret, Sarah Perrill, Stephanie Meyerin, and Zollinger finished half a second later for 6th place with 2:14.35. To finish the relay competition, Teays Valley brought home the highest place of all the relays with a 4th place finish in the 400 yard freestyle relay with teammates Sherman, Kayleigh Byrne, Stir, and Stallman. With a time of 4:42.21 Teays Valley posted their fastest 400 free relay time of the season by over 16 seconds. Both teams look forward anxiously to a rematch at the Central District Championships, pending qualifying from Sectionals.

Top finishes in the boys competition saw Circleville junior Daniel Burns sprint to 3rd place with 23.91 in a spectacular finish between himself and two state contenders, with less than 2 seconds separating the top three places. Burns turned in a time of 1:03.65 for 5th place in the 100 yard backstroke. For Teays Valley’s boys, junior Elliot Ogles turned in the highest place with a 12th in the 100 yard breaststroke.

Back in the girls competition, Margaret Stallman turned in an inspired 100 yard butterfly race and was just out-touched at the wall by .28 of a second to bring home the top finish among the girls with 2nd place in a time of 1:07.98. Stallman continued swimming strong to finish 7th in the 500 yard freestyle with 6:29.30. Circleville junior Prae Puthornjai garnered two 4th place finishes in each of her races, with times of 1:16.77 in the 100 yard breaststroke, missing 3rd place by only .07 of a second, and 2:29.39 in the 200 yard individual medley. Circleville freshman Aimee Harber swam a strong 100 yard butterfly for 6th place with 1:15.73 while Teays Valley junior Allison Stir rounded out the top finishes with 6th place in the 100 yard backstroke with 1:15.96.

In team competition, Teays Valley girls placed 6th with 153 points with Teays Valley boys coming in 11th with 12 points. Circleville girls finished 7th with 108 points with the boys team of one placing 8th with 30 points.

Be sure to follow both teams as they face Sectional competition this coming weekend, Saturday February 14th. Circleville, along with Westfall, travels to Athens to the Ohio University natatorium for the Southeast Sectional with swimming beginning at 12 noon. Teays Valley swims at Upper Arlington’s Central District Sectionals, with Girls competition beginning at 9:30 and Boys competition at 4:30. Complete results for all Teays Valley and Circleville swimmers follow.

Teays Valley Boys:
100Breast - Ogles 12th at 1:28.63.
100Breast - Pritchard 15th at 1:35.81.
100Back - Pritchard 14th at 1:26.52.
100Back - Olson 15th at 1:28.49.
100FS - Olson 20th at 1:16.28.
50FS - Ogles 18th at 28.82.

Teays Valley Girls:
50FS - Byrne 17th at 30.94.
50FS - Sherman 18th at 31.19.
50FS - Perrill 23rd at 35.43.
50FS - Olson 24th at 35.49.
100FS - Sherman 15th at 1:11.76.
100FS - Zollinger 16th at 1:14.74.
100FS - Jeanneret 17th at 1:15.52.
200FS - Olson 18th at 2:57.25.
500FS - Stallman 7th at 6:29.30.
100Back - Stir 6th at 1:15.96.
100Back - Byrne 10th at 1:26.88.
100Back - Zollinger 12th at 1:28.31.
100Back - Perrill 14th at 1:32.19.
100Breast - Stir 12th at 1:25.57.
100Breast - Meyerin 15th at 1:29.41.
100Breast - Jeanneret 16th at 1:32.78.
100BF - Stallman 2nd at 1:07.98.
200IM - Meyerin 14th at 3:15.82.
200MR - Zollinger, Stir, Stallman, Sherman 6th at 2:20.70.
200FSR - Jeanneret, Perrill, Meyerin, Zollinger 6th at 2:14.35.
400FSR - Sherman, Byrne, Stir, Stallman 4th at 4:42.21.

Teays Valley Swimmers Take on Bexley
Teays Valley took its team of 12 swimmers to re-test the waters against Bexley just three days after the MSL meet for a dual match. In this head-to-head competition against the 34 Bexley swimmers, Margaret Stallman won the 100 yard butterfly, finished 2nd in the 500 yard freestyle, and helped bring the 200 yard freestyle medley in for 2nd place with teammates Page Zollinger, Alex Jeanneret, and Sarah Perrill. Elliot Ogles finished 2nd in the 100 yard breaststroke and Jared Pritchard turned over the water strong for 2nd place in the 100 yard backstroke. Individual results follow.

Boys:
50FS - Pritchard 3rd at 38.39.
100FS - Olson 3rd at 1:16.17.
200FS - Olson 3rd at 2:48.01.
100Back - Pritchard 2nd at 1:22.66.
100Breast - Ogles 2nd at 1:27.38.

Girls:
50FS - Byrne 3rd at 31.38.
50FS - Sherman 4th at 31.72.
100FS - Sherman 3rd at 1:12.78.
100FS - Zollinger 4th at 1:13.42.
200FS - Zollinger 3rd at 2:49.20.
200FS - Olson 4th at 2:51.19.
500FS - Stir 3rd at 7:12.16.
500FS - Byrne at 7:19.10.
100Back - Stallman 2nd at 1:15.71.
100Back - Jeanneret 4th at 1:33.30.
100Breast - Meyerin 3rd at 1:32.39.
100Breast - Perrill 4th at 1:47.00.
100BF - Stallman 1st at 1:09.78.
100BF - Stir 4th at 1:20.01.
200IM - Jeanneret 3rd at 3:11.25.
200IM - Meyerin 4th at 3:14.95.
200FSR - Zollinger, Perrill, Jeanneret, Stallman 2nd at 2:18.90.
200MR - Zollinger, Jeanneret, Byrne, Perrill 3rd at 2:37.49.
400FSR - Meyerin, Olson, Byrne, Sherman 3rd at 5:12.08.