Category: News

Junior Callen Aulizia Takes 3 rd Place in the 50 Yard Freestyle and 7th in the 100 Freestyle at Ohio State Division I Swim Championships

7th Place 400 Freestyle Relay Breaks School Record Pushing the

Spartan Boy’s Team to a 10th Place Finish Overall

Two time state qualifier Callen Aulizia dropped 4 tenths of a second placing him third in the 50 freestyle at the Ohio Division I Swimming Championships in Canton. His time of 20.61 was only 16 one-hundreths of a second behind North Canton Hoover’s Nathaniel Mullens who clocked a winning time of 20.45. Aulizia’s time also tied the Boardman High School record set in 2003 by three time state champion Tyler O’Halloran and automatically qualified him as an All-American in the 50 freestyle. Callen swam a time of 46.03 in the finals of the 100 freestyle which moved him from 8 th to 7 th place. He was joined by teammates Junior Kyle Kimerer, Freshman Matthew DunLany, and Freshman Noah Basista in the school record breaking 400 freestyle relay. The Spartans placed 8th in the finals with the time of 3:10.01. Earlier in the evening the same four boys placed 9 th in 200 medley relay with a time of 1:35.94. That time was the second fastest medley relay time in the 32 year history of Boardman High School swimming. All four boys earned “2017 All-Ohio Swim Team” honors for finishing in the top 16 in the state. Overall the Spartan Boy’s Swim Team placed 10 th in the state with 68 points. The point total and the 10th place finish was the highest ever for a Spartan team. Coach Terry O’Halloran had this to say about the team’s performance. “Our four underclassmen did a terrific job under a lot of pressure this past weekend. They were mentally focused for their races. They went their fastest times when it counted. They worked hard throughout the year in and out of the pool.

The good news is that both our girls’ and boys’ teams will be stronger next year. Our Spartan program is now recognized as one of the top tier teams in the state in both swimming performance and academic excellence. We are the only team of this year’s top ten teams that doesn’t have its own high school pool. The time constraints of traveling back and forth to YSU and renting their pool when it is available really cuts into our training time. It is also expensive.

Our record of success, including the 18 consecutive years of making it to the division I state meet, speaks for itself. A pool at the high school would definitely enhance our competitive program but more importantly it could be used to teach our entire school population how to swim. Teaching swimming and water safety saves lives and that is much more important than competitive swimming and diving. Hopefully the Boardman School Board, administration, and the community will consider adding a pool to our system.”

Boardman State Meet Results: SR=School Record, PB=Personal best time, AO=All-Ohio, AA=All- American

200 Medley Relay: 9th place 1:35.94 Matthew DunLany (25.57 back), Noah Basista (26.94 breast), Kyle Kimerer (23.12 fly), Callen Aulizia (20.31 free) AO

200 Individual Medley: Noah Basista 22nd place 1:57.57

50 Freestyle: Callen Aulizia 3rd place 20.61 PB, SR, AO, AA

100 Butterfly: Kyle Kimerer 20th place 52.19

100 Freestyle: Callen Aulizia 7th place 46.38 AO

100 Breaststroke: Noah Basista 20th place 59.02

400 Freestyle Relay: 8th place 3:10.01 Callen Aulizia (46.14), Kyle Kimerer (46.73), Matthew DunLany (48.57), Noah Basista (48.57) SR, AO