Excitement, strategy

Just like swimming laps in a pool, the swimming season is down to the final turn and race to the wall.

Today and Friday the area’s best will hit the pool at C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton to decide the state championships in the Division II competition. Division I is scheduled to finish Saturday but has no local qualifiers.

Shawnee will send the most swimmers with six relay teams and six individuals on both the boys and girls sides. Shawnee coach Jeff Brown has been eyeing this weekend for several weeks.

“Good enough to get to the next level,” Brown said at the district tournament. “We look forward to next week. Hopefully (districts) is a step toward greatness.”

Greatness could come in several ways for the Indians, as they have the fastest time in three of the events. Although the fastest time means a better seed, the difference between the best times and slowest times is sometimes very small. Shawnee senior Zachary Diltz is the 21st seed in the 50-yard freestyle yet his time of 22.39 is just over a second off the top seeded time of 21.06.

“It’s real exciting,” Wapakoneta coach Mark Law said. “The biggest thing is the turns and get faster in and out of the walls. It’s a matter of what you see, they need to take it quicker into the wall and be tighter in and out (of turns). “

Lima Central Catholic coach Dan Reinicke’s 200-yard medley relay team of Brooke Davenport, Jacqueline Rex, Sarah Scheiwiller and Megan Scheiwiller knows that focus is the key.

“We had practice Monday morning, Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday at the state pool,” Reinicke said. “We are just trying to hone the skills and starts and turns. We talk about what we have to do to get up. They are kind of loose now. At the state pool they will be more serious. Not a lot of smiles at the event, but more focus on what they want to do.”

The projected crowd of 4,500 spectators will be the largest of the season, but all of the T-Bird swimmers except Megan Scheiwiller have swum at the state tournament before.

Wapakoneta freshman Josie Miller will experience the tournament for the first time. She is the 10th seeded swimmer with a time of 24.46 in the 50-yard freestyle. The top time entering the tournament is 23.32

“She has a swimmer’s body,” Law said. “She wants to be in the final eight and be on the podium. The biggest excitement was the race getting there. The last few days we work on the start, turns and finishes.”

Ada’s Matthew Wilcox (50-yard freestyle) and Jon Robey (100- yard freestyle) will participate in both individual events and the 200-yard freestyle relay.

“You can’t work them to death,” Ada coach Ryan Siefring said. “We are doing nice and easy practice. We work on techniques, starts, turns and strokes. They all have high spirits. Our goal was to make the podium at districts and compete at state.”

Bath’s Katie Snyder is at the state championship for the third straight season. The senior will compete in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard freestyle. After a season of hard work and long hours, this week the focus is on the mental part of the sport.

“This week is more of a relief for us,” Bath coach Ian Kohli said. “During the season you put in a ton of time, there is not a lot of (physical) work this time of the year. There are always nerves and we prepare for that too within the season. We do visualization. In practice we reduce the yardage and do more sprint work. We’ll tweak her form, but really this week, we talk about her schedule and get everything done with school work.”