At the Bowling Green State University Aquatic Center Friday, Perrysburg boys won the Northern Lakes League swimming and diving championship, scoring 303 points.
“The boys previously finished last season with a second place finish for NLL championships and have set this goal for themselves and their team all year to reach first place,” coach Alana Sigg said.
“Through relentless leadership from team captains (Kyle O’Connell, Owen Recker and John Majerus), a strong team culture, and overall grit and determination from the team they were able to achieve this goal taking home first place with a margin of 68 points.
Napoleon was second with 235 points, followed by Anthony Wayne (224), Sylvania Northview (199), Bowling Green (127), Sylvania Southview (93) and Springfield (53).
It started with the boys diving Thursday at Napoleon High School, where Perrysburg senior Owen Recker finished first, scoring 507.6 points and freshman Trevor Madigan placed second at 448.6 points.
“The boys brought their A game with some flawless and precise dives,” Sigg said.
The Perrysburg swimmers continued the program’s winning ways Friday into the swimming events at BGSU. Perrysburg finished with six first-place finishes out of 11 events.
The first-place finishes for the team were in the 200-yard medley relay (senior Steven Green, junior Seth Merriman, junior John Majerus, and junior Ewan Fisher), the 200 freestyle (Fisher) and 50 freestyle (Green).
The 200 medley relay finished in 1:43.82 to defeat second place AW (1:47.84). Fisher finished the 200 freestyle in 1:49.29 to beat second place AW freshman Max Gottschalk (1:51.29). Green finished the 50 freestyle in 22.49 to nip second-place Napoleon senior Masen Switzer (22.6).
It continued with the 500 freestyle (Fisher), 100 backstroke (Green) and the 400 freestyle relay (Majerus, Fisher, Merriman and Green). Fisher finished the 500 freestyle in 4:59.5 to defeat Gottschalk 5:01.5) again. Green won the 100 backstroke in 55.02, beating second place BG junior Alex Xu (57.71).
The 400 freestyle relay team closed out in 3:25.88 to beat the second place AW team (3:30.63).
The Perrysburg girls scored 214 points, good enough for a second-place finish. AW won with 325 points, Napoleon (189) was third, followed by BG (182), Southview (159), Northview (152), Springfield (60) and Maumee (3).
In girls diving Thursday at BGSU, Perrysburg senior Emma Erlenbusch (222.5) placed ninth and junior Sam Kyser (180.45) placed 11th.
“These two young ladies showed up with a winning spirit keeping the energy high with Sam even displaying a new personal best for the night,” Sigg said.
She said the Bobcat girls “showed up (Friday for swimming) with the same spirit and tenacity ready to race against 16 other teams.”
BG finished its evening with three first place finishes — 200 medley relay (junior Sylvia Freeman, senior Haley Gano, sophomore Natalie Sanders and sophomore Claire Gerken), 200 freestyle (Sanders) and the 200 intermediate medley (Haley Gano).
The 200 medley relay team finished in 1:54.88 to defeat Southview (1:57.82) by less than three seconds. In the 200 freestyle, Sanders finished in 1:57.34 to defeat second place AW sophomore Kate Hildebrand (2:00.58). Gano finished the 200 IM in 2:13.6 and AW freshman Mallory Syrek (2:21.06) placed second.
“Along with the stupendous swims that the Lady Jackets had, they are still maintaining time drops even in the midst of swimming tired,” Sigg said.
Time drops for the evening went to Perrysburg swimmers Isabella Mati, Nareesa Hussain, Katie Avery, Claire Gerken, Elena Gerken and Ali Cherry for individual events.
Sigg said the 200 freestyle relay team of Isabella Staschiak, Mati, Elena Gerken and Maggie Merriman dropped 2.4 seconds from last weekend at Oak Harbor’s Subway Invite and the 400 freestyle relay team of Gano, Claire Gerken, Freeman and Sanders dropped 2.8 seconds from their time last week.
“While the girls were not able to clench the first place spot we are excited for the remainder of competition season to see how the ladies perform,” Sigg said.
