The Mount Gilead swim team competed at their sectional tournament at the Columbus Academy in Gahanna. The boys team brought home a third place finish out of 16 teams.
“I was very pleased with this finish,” said coach Dina Snow. “We had one of the larger teams there with enough depth to have swimmers in all the events, so most swimmers were able to contribute to the team score. Our girls finished 13th out of 19, but that was with only two swimmers!”
Top finishers for MG and advancing to districts were the boys 200 Medley relay (Logan Conrad, Evan Zmuda, Casey Conrad and Kyle Landes), fourth place; the 200 free relay (Conrad, Kurtis Brown, Landes and Zmuda), fourth place; and the 400 free relay (Conrad, Brown, Landes and Conrad), fourth place; Evan Zmuda, sixth in the 200 IM and fifth in the 100 breast with a new school record; Erin Zmuda, second in both the 50 and 100 free; and Casey Conrad, sixth in the 100 fly.
Also scoring were Gavin Robinson in the 200 IM and 500 free; Colton Long in the 200 IM; Jay Stratton in the 200 free and 100 back; Noah Arrington in the 200 free; Kyle Landes, 50 free; and Tyler Jones in the 100 back. Earning personal bests were Gavin Robinson, 200 IM and 500 free; Colton Long, 200 IM; Trenton Ball, 100 free, Andrew McFarland, 100 back, and Marion McGill, 100 free.
The Division II Central District tournament was held at The Ohio State University on Feb. 19. Participants were the top 30 swimmers in each boys and girls events from the three sectional tournaments in the district. District qualifiers for MG were Logan and Casey Conrad, Evan and Erin Zmuda, Kyle Landes, Kurtis Brown, and alternate Gavin Robinson.
Snow reported that, “It makes for a long day with hundreds of swimmers packed on the deck and bleachers. It’s fun to see some fantastic swims, but can be hard to keep the energy up after hours waiting to swim. Mount Gilead did well and we were glad to have swimmers advance to that level.”
The boys finished 24th out of 31 teams, with Evan Zmuda scoring for MG. Evan placed 12th in his 200 IM, shattering his old record with his new time of 2:13.69. He narrowly missed the podium with a ninth place finish in the 100 breaststroke, replacing his old record set just days before with his new time of 1:05.69.
“I was thrilled for Evan: he’d been working so hard to achieve these new goals, and the OSU pool was the perfect place for him to accomplish that!” said Snow.
As the only girl swimmer for MG, Erin Zmuda did well to bring home a 20th place finish out of 31 teams. She made the podium with her sixth place finish in the 50 free, and also scored with her 10th place finish in the 100 free.
“Erin had been fighting illness for several weeks, so I think she did a great job powering through to finish well, “ said Snow. “I was very proud of all of our swimmers, even if they didn’t score at the meet. It is a nice end to a season of hard work to get to swim at OSU.”
Information received from Dina Snow.
