High school swimming: Medina's Kellen Morford still in state title hunt

This story has been edited to reflect the following correction: Due to a technical issue in the upload of the online results, Medina junior Brady Ryba actually finished seventh in his preliminary heat and 28th overall. CANTON — Medina senior Kellen Morford qualified for the championship heats in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles at the Division I state meet at Canton McKinley's C.T. Branin Natatorium. Morford started the morning by swimming a time of 1:41.16 in the 200 free, qualifying him fourth. That was more than a second better than his second-place district time of 1:42.18. Qualifying for the championship final means Morford will finish better than last season, when he was 16th. It also means he is guaranteed to have Medina County's best finish in the event since his brother Brayden's eighth-place effort in 2023. The Medina senior followed his 200 free qualification with a 46.14 in the 100 free to sit seventh, just .01 seconds behind St. Xavier's Gino Eckert. Morford's time was 0.37 seconds faster than his district-winning 46.51. After failing to qualify for the championship finals in the 100 free prelims, Ryba finished seventh in his heat in the 100 back with a 53.05, and 28th overall. Ryba finished fifth at districts in both events. In the girls preliminaries, Medina sophomore Madeline Russell finished 14th in the 100 free, earning her a spot in the consolation finals, with a best possible state finish of ninth. She failed to qualify in the 50 free, finishing 21st in the prelims. Russell finished second in both events at districts. In the team competition, Medina will finish better than last season in both boys and girls. The Bees had just one point in the boys meet last year thanks to Morford in the 200 free, while the girls failed to score. The girls had already scored Wednesday when diver Ella Bohmer finished 15th. The Brunswick girls swam in three relay preliminaries — the 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free — but failed to qualify in 23rd, 22nd and 19th, respectively. Contact Ryan Isley at sports@medina-gazette.com.