The Mount Gilead Indian swim team traveled to Kenyon College to participate in the Small Schools Invitational on Dec. 19. The boys finished in 12th place out of 27 teams, while the girls team, which was represented by just two swimmers, placed 20th out of 31 teams.

“This meet has grown so much over the years. It has always been fun to go to such a beautiful facility, but with 31 teams crowding the deck, it was just a really long meet for us. Some of the teams competing, like Reynoldsburg, Grove City and Big Walnut, are no longer what we would consider small teams or small schools! Scoring was also not very deep, so I am proud that we came away with points at all!” reported coach Dina Snow.

Scoring for the Indians were: Boys 200 medley relay (Logan Conrad, Evan Zmuda, Casey Conrad and Kyle Landes), 9th place; Boys 200 free relay (Conrad, Zmuda, Conrad, Landes), 7th place; Evan Zmuda, 4th in the 200 IM and 5th in the 100 breast; Erin Zmuda, 5th in the 50 free and 100 free; Casey Conrad, 9th in the 100 fly and 14th in the 200 free; Aaron Evans, 15th in the 100 fly; and Logan Conrad, 18th in the 100 breast.

“We hope next year that the meet will be pared down or divided into sessions by divisions. This would give us a better shot at competing against similar schools, ” said Snow.

Over the Christmas holiday, the Indians also competed in a quad meet hosted by Marion Pleasant on Dec. 30.

“With all the kids that were away on vacation or injured, we only had 11 swimmers compete! Marion McGill was the only girl swimmer I had that night! The team did well, though, and we ended up placing second after Pleasant and ahead of Marion Harding and Newark Catholic, ” reported Coach Snow.

Scoring in the top three in their events were the boys 200 ‘A’ medley relay (Jay Stratton, Dylan Knight, Casey Conrad and Kurtis Brown), 2nd; the ‘B’ medley relay (Tyler Jones, Colton Long, Aaron Evans and Andrew McFarland), 3rd place; Casey Conrad, 2nd in the 100 fly; Colton Long, 2nd in the 200 IM and 3rd in the 100 breast; Tyler Jones, 3rd in the 200 IM; Marion McGill, 3rd in the 500 free; Jay Stratton, 3rd in the 100 back; the boys ‘A’ 200 free relay (Jones, Brown, Evans and Knight), 3rd place; and the boys 400 free relay (Conrad, Stratton, Gavin Robinson and Evans), 3rd place.

Also scoring for MG were Casey Conrad, 4th in the 200 free; Tyler Jones, 4th in the 100 back; Marion McGill, 7th in the 50 free; Aaron Evans, 4th in the 100 fly; Dylan Knight, 5th in the 100 free and 4th in the 100 breast; Kurtis Brown, 5th in the 50 free and 6th in the 100 free; Andrew McFarland, 8th in the 50 free; and the ‘B’ 200 free relay(Colton Long, Andrew McFarland, Gavin Robinson and John McGill), 6th place.

“The holiday break is rough!” said Snow. We try to get a little more yardage in to build up for January, plus the change in sleeping habits and lots of goodies makes for swimmers that really don’t feel like they can do their best. I was very proud of how they performed with such a small squad. We did have some personal bests despite all that—earned by Colton Long, Marion McGill and Tyler Jones.”

Next up for the Indians: a multi-team meet hosted by Marion Harding on 1/6 at 6:30, and the Division II public schools invitational hosted by Mount Gilead on Dec. 9 at noon at the Marion Y.

Information received from Dina Snow.