Boardman Swimmers Qualify for State Championships Break Three Team Records:
The Boardman High School Swim Team competed this past weekend at the Northeast Ohio District Championships held at Cleveland State University Busby Natatorium. They qualified 3 relays and 2 individuals that will be represented at the Ohio High School Swimming State Championships held at Canton McKinley’s CT Branin Natatorium on Friday and Saturday February 22nd and 23rd.
“We had a great meet! We wanted to go out there and race and get a few kids into the State meet and it all came together at the right time,” Coach Cordon mentioned.
Three school records were broken. Noah Basista placed 5th in the 100 Fly (50.53) and 3rd in the 100 Breaststroke and took down the team record held by Ryan Bailey by going a :56.28, which is an All-American Consideration time. “Noah had an excellent meet! We really wanted him to use his athleticism off the walls and keep his stroke rate efficient. He did just that and qualified both of his individual events into the State Championship meet,” Coach Cordon mentioned. Matthew DunLany qualified individually by placing 7th in the 100 fly (51.26). Two of the Spartan relay teams will move on to the State Tournament. The relay team of DunLany, Basista, Mason Rassega, and Will Linker placed 5th in the 200 Free Relay (1:25.91) and will race this relay again next weekend along with the 400 Free Relay members of Basista, Linker, Jordan Stackpole, and DunLany which placed 5th with a time of 3:10.63.
On the girl’s side, Mikel Flatley broke the 50 yard freestyle record held by Corie Kuras by 1 hundredths of a second and setting the new mark at :24.56. The girl’s 200 Freestyle Relay place 7th in the District meet and broke their old mark set last season. “At the beginning of the season, Coaches Chad DeAngleo, Ryan Ebie, and myself talked to Mikel Flatley, Ali Kuras, Alyssa DiNapoli, and Jennah Markovitch about a goal we had in mind. We challenged the 4 of them to work really hard this season, especially their kick. We wanted each of them to drop .30 seconds in their 50 sprint to not only re-break their record, but to qualifying this relay to state. This was the icing on the cake of a great meet! They did exactly that, and we get to swim this relay again next weekend at the State Championship meet,” explained Coach Cordon.