All nine members of the Mount Gilead swim team advanced to the district tournament Saturday at their sectional swimming tournament, held at Columbus Academy in Gahanna.
This meet is one of three sectional tournaments held to determine qualifiers for the District meet held on Feb. 16. The top 30 qualifiers in each event from all three meets combined move on to the next level.
“We knew we would have some of our experienced swimmers advance, as well as the boys medley relay. Because we have such a small, young team and had to make choices about how to arrange relays and choose events, we didn’t know what might happen after that. It was so great to watch the swimmers achieve some personal bests and move on in the competition. The girls have not had a relay since 2015, so I am so happy for them,” said coach Dina Snow.
Swimmers and their events: The girls 200 medley and 200 free relays (Emily Hanft, Cassandra Snopik, Adriana Tinch and Kelsey Kneipp); Emily Hanft, 50 free and 100 free; the boys medley relay (Eric Mowery, Evan Zmuda, Casey Conrad and Gavin Robinson), the 200 free relay (Robinson, Zmuda, Mowery and Tyler Knight) and the 400 free relay (Robinson, Conrad, Mowery and Knight); Evan Zmuda, 200 IM and 100 breast; Casey Conrad, the 100 fly and 100 back; and Gavin Robinson, 100 breast.
With just four swimmers, the girls finished 13th out of 24 teams, just half a point behind River Valley (with 10 swimmers), while the five member boys’ team finished sixth out of 22 teams, just half a point behind Marion Pleasant(with 17 swimmers).
