Medina sings national anthem, then beats Wadsworth in swim & dive meet

MEDINA — An evening that began with the seniors from the Medina swimming and diving teams singing the national anthem at the Medina Community Recreation Center ended with the Medina boys and girls sweeping Wadsworth in a dual meet. The Medina boys won eight of the 12 events en route to a 103-64 victory, while Medina and Wadsworth split girls events with six wins each, but the Bees came away with a 105-76 advantage overall. A dominating performance for the boys was important, as it was the last meet of the regular season before the sectional meet at Cleveland State on Feb. 8. "It's just really good, especially at the end of the season, considering we're all pretty tired right now," Medina junior Brady Ryba said. "We're all getting ready for our meet next Saturday at CSU, so it's really just getting this last bit of racing in before we head off to the postseason." After Wadsworth won the opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, Medina rattled off wins in eight of the next 10. Kellen Morford got the winning started in the closest race of the night, defeating Ryba by just 0.08 seconds in the 200 freestyle, finishing with a time of 1:49.76. "That was something else," Morford said. "I looked over and he's hanging with me. I'm like, 'Oh, no, we gotta go.' But, no, it was a great race, and I enjoy racing that. That's why I do this." Ryba enjoyed the race just as much as his teammate, even though he finished second. "It's really nice because normally for point reasons, we don't really race each other a lot outside of practice," Ryba said. "It was nice to really compete against him and get some good action before we head off, because we will swim that event against each other come next week." Morford also won the next-closest race later in the event, finishing strong to post a time of 49.13 in the 100-yard free to edge Wadsworth's Tony Canfora by 0.13. "I do a lot of drills for the finish," Morford said. "Also, it's the competition of the sport that really gets me going. So if I look over and see somebody next to me on that last 25, I'm gonna dig a little bit deeper. I'm gonna find it from somewhere and get going." Ryba won the 100-yard backstroke (55.50), while other winners for Medina included Dylan Kish in the 200-yard IM (2:13.05), Manny Heming in the 500-yard free and William Carlson in the 100-yard back (1:09.75). Ryba, Jonathan Robinson, Kish and Morford won the 200 free relay in a time of 1:335.02, besting the field by seven seconds. Wadsworth won two individual events, with Hunter Harris claiming the 100 butterfly (58.05) and Jacob Smelser winning the 50 free (24.47), defeating teammate Connor Gaugler by 0.15. It was an event Smelser doesn't usually race. He thinks he did it once as a freshman and once as a junior, but it isn't one of his normal races. "It was actually interesting, because that was the first time I've really actually swam the 50 (in a meet)," he said. "I was just trying to get out quick. But the senior guys all did the 50 together because we thought it'd be something fun for our last school meet." Wadsworth won two relays, with Smelser, Tyler Ramsier, Harris and Canfora starting the night with a win in the 200 medley (1:41.40) and then Spencer McGrath, Ramsier, Smelser and Canfora finished the night by winning the 400 free (3:41.55). Wadsworth trailed after the first two legs of the final relay, but Smelser made up the gap and Canfora finished it. "That's happened at our last few meets actually, where we're quite a bit back," Smelser said. "But then, like the last couple of us end up catching us up." On the girls side, Madeleine Russell won twice individually for the Bees, swimming a 54.89 in the 100 free and a 24.85 in the 50 free. Her 50 time was just ticks off her personal best. "I haven't broken 25 in a meet in the whole season and ever, actually, and I was able to do that tonight by quite a bit," Russell said. "It was only like 0.2 off of my best time." Elizabeth Brewer got the other individual win of the night for Medina, as she clocked 2:02.29 in the 200 free. Medina's relay teams picked up two wins, with the lineup of Brewer, Eliana Wilson, Sydney Robinson and Russell coming home in 1:43.53 in the 200 free and Brewer, Quinn Harrell, Wilson and Russell finishing the night with a win in the 400 free (3:50.70). "We really push through any pain towards the end of the meet because we want to win and we have that drive," Brewer said. Wadsworth had five individual wins, with Tashi Lama taking the 200 IM (2:27.12) and the 100 breaststroke (1:16.73), Olive Dietz winning the 500 free (5:43.44), Irelin Danger capturing the 100 fly (1:03.98) and Burgen Danger winning the 100 back (1:05.09). The win by Burgen Danger was the closest race on the girls side, as she beat Brewer by 0.32. "It was painful, that's for certain," Danger said. "But I knew I wanted to do my best for my team, and I tried my best, and we got it." Medina swept the diving events, as Wadsworth did not have any athletes participating. Lance Webb was the only diver for the boys and scored 174.52 on his six dives, while Gabriella Bohmer paced the girls with a score of 253.65. As for the national anthem, it was something the seniors had agreed to do for their senior night but it slipped their minds. "We agreed to do the national anthem two weeks ago, and then we forgot about it and we did not practice once," Russell said. "You could probably hear it. But we really wanted to do it, so we did it, and we were giggling a little bit. It's probably disrespectful, honestly, but you know, we did our best 110% effort there for sure." Contact Ryan Isley at sports@medina-gazette.com.