Noah Basista Takes 8th Place in Breaststroke in Division 1 Finals. Boys’ Relays 13th and 15th
Junior Noah Basista capped off his season by placing 8th in the 100 Breaststroke at the OHSAA Division 1 Swimming State Championships. “This was one of the fastest state meets I have ever attended. Out of 22 swimming events (boys and girls), 10 state records were broken along with one that was a national record. To make it into this meet is becoming increasingly more difficult. Noah qualified for this meet in 2 individual events, the 100 Butterfly and 100 Breaststroke, along with 2 relays. We knew he was going to be extremely busy. On Friday morning, he had a tough swim in his first event, the 100 butterfly, and was a little disappointed with his time and place. However, what impressed me about Noah was how he put that race aside, moved on, and swam an incredible race in the breaststroke to be seeded 8th in finals on Saturday night. Noah swam this again on Saturday night and finished 8th with a time of 56.48.
Matthew DunLany was the only other individual qualifier for Boardman and swam the 100 butterfly and placed 23rd. “Matthew was in an outside lane and we wanted him to go out a little faster and hold on. He is one of our most durable swimmers and can swim any distance or stroke. He wanted to go top 16 in butterfly but just missed it. His splits on the 200 and 400 freestyle relays were very fast so we knew he was back to racing speeds,” Coach Cordon commented.
Both of Boardman boys’ relays qualified to make it back to consolation finals on Saturday night. The 200 Freestyle relay placed 13th in the State with a time of 1:26.26. Relays members include Noah Basista (Jr), Mason Rassega (Sr), Will Linker (Jr), and Matthew DunLany (Jr). The 400 Free relay placed 15th in the State with a time of 3:10.69. Members of this relay include Will Linker (Jr), Jordan Stackpole (Jr), Matthew DunLany (Jr), and Noah Basista (Jr).
Boardman Girl’s 200 Free Relay takes 19th Place
The Boardman Girl’s 200 Freestyle relay members Mikel Flatley (Sr), Alison Kuras (Sr), Alyssa DiNapoli (Jr), and Jennah Markovitch (Sr) placed 19th in the Division 1 Girl’s State Tournament. They improved their position by moving from 22nd to 19th and just missed rebreaking their own record set last weekend at Districts. “This meet is incredibly fast! Our running joke is that we may have the smallest girls in the entire tournament! Somehow, our girls still move! They have had a fantastic season…for these kids to move up 3 places at the Division 1 State Championship was an incredible accomplishment and we were happy with this improvement. We graduate 3 girls, Mikel, Alison, and Jennah, from this relay…they will not be easy to replace. We will soon start looking to see who is working hard and ready to step into this role for next season,” explained Coach Cordon.