The North Oldham Mustangs won their 15th consecutive OC3 Meet on January 3 at Ralph Wright Natatorium with a total of 469 points. The Oldham County Colonels came in second place with 398 points while the South Oldham Dragons finished in third with 362 points.
“It’s a good tune up to get ready for regionals,” North head coach Kiley Handley said. “It is a meet that we care about a lot. Our kids definitely stepped up and raced. I think it bodes well for regionals at the end of the month.”
Oldham County head coach Kris Korzeniowski saw his team earn a lot of personal records and drop a tremendous amount of time as a team.
“We had kids that stepped up and swam events they’d never swam before for that meet,” Korzeniowski said. “Like in a good championship meet, we had a lot of success stories, a couple big heartbreaks, but overall, it was a great meet. It was fun. All three schools were just super close this year, which I think just speaks volumes for our county growing the sport of swimming. I had a ton of fun coaching it, and I think that kids had a lot of fun competing in it.”
In her first OC3 Meet as the south head coach, Savannah McFadden felt the meet went great and the kids’ energy was great throughout the night.
“They were super excited, real supportive of each other,” McFadden said. “It was really great to see the senior recognition and the families come together for that. It was nice to see the teamwork and everything that the kids have been working toward all season kind of come together for their benefit at OC3.”
North Oldham
North won the boys 200-yard medley relay behind the efforts of sophomore Brady Reetz, junior Bryan Xia, seniors Alex Kuhn and Bailey Miesner. The second boys team that scored finished in fourth, consisting of seventh graders Rowan Jones and Bear Soderquist, freshman Charlie Howard and senior Grayson Roederer.
In the girls 200-yard medley relay, the Mustangs placed second with the team of sophomores Hallie DeMichele and Mia Bland, seventh grader Emma DeMichele and junior Abbey Dehner.
North’s second team placed fourth behind senior Riley Auton, freshman Emma Schewe, seventh grader Audrey Williams and eighth grader Emily Monson.
The team of Reetz, Xia, Kuhn and Miesner won their second relay race of the day in the boys 200-yard freestyle while the team of Roederer, sophomore Ben Rubinstein, senior Declan Blandford and freshman Allan Xia finished fourth.
North Oldham finished third and fifth in the girls 200-yard freestyle relay with the team of Williams, Emma DeMichele and freshmen Kasey Halfacre and Ruby Jane Kessler, placing third, and the team of Schewe, junior Lorelei Deitrich, senior Kaelynn Pham and eighth grader Ruby Brost, placing fifth.
The team of Auton, Kessler, Dehner and Bland won the girls 400-yard freestyle relay. DeMichele, Halfacre, Monson and seventh grader Charlotte Dehner placed second. The boys relay teams placed second and fourth. Rubinstein, Blandford, Jones and Allan placed second. Howard and sophomores Owen Robinson, Karsen Pham and Logan White finished fifth.
DeMichele won the girls 200-yard IM, and Dehner finished behind her while Emma placed sixth. Reetz won the boys 200-yard IM.
Jones finished third in the boys race, and Robinson placed fifth. Xia won the boys 500-yard freestyle while Soderquist came in fourth place. Auton finished third in the girls 500-yard freestyle, and Monson placed fifth.
“Hallie DeMichele had a really good, strong start in winning that event,” Handley said. “We have Mia Bland who got third and second in the 50 and higher freestyle, which is a really hard race to compete with. Hallie also got second in the 100 fly as well. Both of them are kind of our top performers consistently in both of their events, which was a good kind of stepping stone for our girls and started the meet out strong.”
Charlotte swam to a second place finish in the girls 200-yard freestyle while Deitrich placed seventh and Kaelynn placed eighth. Allan placed second in the boys 200 freestyle. White finished fifth in the boys, and Karsen placed eighth.
In the girls 50-yard free, Bland, Kessler and Halfacre swam to a third, fourth and fifth place finish, respectively. Kuhn finished second in the boys race while Rubinstein finished behind him. Blandford also scored points for North with a sixth place finish.
DeMichele placed second in the girls 100-yard butterfly. Dehner placed fourth and Williams placed sixth. Reetz and Kuhn finished second and third in the boys race while Soderquist finished seventh. Bland and Kessler placed second and third in the girls 100 free. Halfacre placed fifth. Miesner, Rubinstein and Blandford finished second, fourth and sixth in the boys.
Auton finished fourth in the girls 100-yard backstroke, and Monson placed fifth while Charlotte placed seventh. Miesner swam to a second place finish in the boys backstroke. Jones and Karsen finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
In the boys 100-yard breaststroke, Xia won the race. Allan finished second, and Howard placed fourth. Emma placed third in the girls race while Williams placed fifth, and Brost finished behind her.
“[Xia] is also another kid that I can always depend on that’s going to give it everything he has when it comes to a relay, when it comes to his race,” Handley said. “He really steps up. I really value that. Brady Reetz would be another swimmer that consistently performs well. He won the 200 IM and got second and the 100 fly. He really has just kind of grown into who he is as a swimmer. He’s just kind of started tapping into his potential.”
With Oldham County schools shut down due to inclement weather, Handley wants her swimmers back in the water as soon as possible, so they don’t lose rhythm or the hard work they have accomplished over the season.
“I’ve been kind of stressing we’re swimming for the team, so how are we going to perform the best as a team overall,” Handley said. “That’s kind of what I’m looking at these next two weeks of like, ‘okay, is this the best events? What are the two events I’m going to pick for you?’ That kind of solidifies what those options are.”
Oldham County
The group of senior Arlen Holton, junior Tucker Bailey and freshmen Nathan Lackner and Ty Klingenberg placed second in the boys 200-yard medley relay. The Colonels second boys team to score finished sixth with the group of freshman Torin Stroud, sophomore George Holton and seniors Joey Moch and Benjamin Fix.
Oldham County finished third and ninth in the boys 200-yard freestyle relay. Holton, Bailey, Klingenberg and sophomore Max Anderson placed second while Stroud, junior Daven Drury, freshman Sam Parisi and sophomore Ethan Lott finished ninth.
The Colonel group of Anderson, Lackner, sophomore Elliot Ruelas Valdovinos and freshman Gavin Foley finished third in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Moch, Fix, Lott and sophomore Austin Wheeldon placed behind them in fourth place.
The girls team of eighth grader Finley Hyde, freshman Gracie Husband and seventh graders Mia Hodges and Sadie Wheeldon placed third in the girls 200-yard medley relay race. The second girls team placed seventh behind the team of junior Elsie Husband, seventh grader Katelyn Eldridge, sophomore Serena Elder and eighth grader Juliana Bugeja.
In the girls 200-yard freestyle relay, junior Isla Moore, senior Ava Breeding, freshman Kennedy Hodges and Mia placed second for Oldham County. The Colonels also received points from the team of Hyde, Husband, Gracie and Elder, finishing fourth in the same event. Bugeja, eighth grader Harper Coffey, seventh grader Lilian Stroud and freshman Raegan Patterson finished fourth in the girls 400-yard freestyle relay.
Moore won the girls 200-yard freestyle with Husband and Breeding finishing fourth and fifth respectively. In the boys 200 free, Anderson placed third while Foley placed fourth, and Lott finished seventh.
“It’s awesome to have a kid that sets a first place right, but where this team is going to be strong is that they all compete together,” Korzeniowski said. “In the 200 freestyle, the girls went 1, 4 and 5. Locking down three of the five top point slots in an event, that’s where they’re going to become a dominating force.”
Hyde finished fourth in the girls 200 IM. Sadie finished fifth, and Eldridge came in 10th. Valdovinos swam in the boys 200 IM, placing fourth. George finished in 10th, and Drury placed eighth.
Kennedy won the girls 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle for the Colonels while Husband finished sixth, and Patterson placed 11th in the 50 free. Husband placed sixth in the 100 free while Bugeja placed eighth.
Holton, Klingenberg and Fix finished the boys 50 free in fourth, fifth and seventh, respectively. Klingenberg finished third in the boys 100 free. Holton placed fifth while Moch placed seventh in the boys 100 free race. In the girls 100-yard butterfly, Mia placed third, and Elder placed fifth.
The boys 100-yard butterfly saw Bailey win the race while Valdovinos finished fifth, and Parisi finished ninth. Moore came away with another win in the girls 500-yard freestyle. Sadie and Patterson placed seventh and ninth. Anderson finished third in the boys 500 free while Stroud and Parisi placed sixth and seventh respectively.
Hodges won the girls 100-yard backstroke while Bailey won the boys 100-yard backstroke. Hyde finished third, and Breeding placed sixth in the girls. Foley finished seventh in the boys race, and George finished eighth.
In the girls 100-yard breaststroke, Elder placed eighth while Eldridge placed 10th, and Coffey placed 12th. Lackner swam to a fifth place finish in the boys 100-yard breaststroke. Wheeldon finished seventh, and Lott finished eighth.
Korzeniowski plans to have his team do a sprint meet to help his team get prepared for regionals after a week off due to weather.
“I’m just going to go a little bit crazy and see what our top speed is…,” Korzeniowski said. “First, boys, I do want to just throw out two more names, because they’re both seniors as well. Joey, he’s one of the team captains. He’s been great for the team spirit. He’s goofy, makes practice light hearted for a lot of kids, which is a great thing to have on a team. Ben Fix, he’s actually a first-year swimmer that just has been hungry about figuring out how to move himself through the water.”
South OldhamThe Dragons won the girls 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle relay with a team of freshmen Maia Ionescu, Kinsley Ramey, Lyla Hottman and Anna Grugel. The team of seniors Larissa Evans, Catie Grugel and Corrina Punnett and seventh grader Emma Oberhausen placed fifth in the girls medley relay.
The team of Punnett, eighth grader Rayne Scharinger and seniors Melanie Donnelly and Suzie Martinez finished sixth in the girls 200-yard freestyle relay. The team of Oberhausen, Evans, Scharinger, Catie Grugel finished third in the girls 400-yard freestyle relay. South also placed fifth in the 400 free with a team of Martinez, seniors Bobbi Daniel and Mallory Underwood and junior Molly James.
“I’ve seen a lot of improvement with the girls,” McFadden said. “People like Kinsley that have been trying to get a particular time all season, having her get that time at that meet was really awesome. We’ve also got some of our middle school girls that are newer to the sport that were making significant time drops. We have a couple of swimmers this year that I think have never swam, or at least that’s my understanding, that they have not swam previously. They’re still making huge improvements. They’re still figuring things out. It’s really nice to see how much they improve at meets like that.”
The South boys team, consisting of sophomores Tucker Hutchens and Colin Johnson and eighth graders Clayton Gnau and River Scharinger, in the 200-yard medley relay placed third. The group of Hutchens, senior Connor Kahle and juniors Karter Graves and Andrew Moss finished second in the boys freestyle relay.
The group of Gnau, River, senior Jordan Sorenson and freshman Jackson Huber scored points with a fifth place finish in the boys 200 freestyle relay. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, the group of Graves, Johnson, Kahle and Moss won the event while Huber, junior Austin Martin and eighth graders Maddox McFadden and Richard Friggle finished sixth in the 400 free relay.
Moss won the boys 200-yard freestyle. Martin placed sixth, and sophomore Benson Brown placed 11th. Scharinger, Punnett and sophomore Greta Jolley placed third, sixth and 10th in the girls 200 free. River placed second in the boys 200 IM race while Friggle placed seventh. In the girls IM, Grugel, Oberhausen and Catie finished third, seventh and ninth, respectively.
Graves won the boys 50 free for South. Johnson finished ninth while Sorenson finished 11th. Ramey placed second in the girls 50 free, and Catie placed seventh while James placed ninth. Kahle placed fourth in the boys 100-yard butterfly. Gnau finished sixth, and junior Matthew Smotherman finished eighth.
Hottman won the girls 100-yard butterfly and placed second in the 500 freestyle race. Junior Callie Richards came in seventh, and Underwood finished behind her. In the girls 500 free race, Evans finished sixth, and junior Mallory Sackella placed eighth. Graves placed second in the boys 500 free while Smotherman finished fifth.
Moss also won the boys 100 free. Sorenson and Huber placed 11th and 12th in the boys 100 freestyle. In the girls 100-yard freestyle, Ionescu placed fourth, and Scharinger placed seventh while James finished 12th.
Ionescu placed second in the girls 100-yard backstroke while Evans finished eighth, and Sackella finished 11th. Hutchens placed third in the boys 100-yard backstroke, and Gnau finished sixth while Friggle finished 10th.
Ramey won the girls 100-yard breaststroke, breaking a school record. Grugel finished a spot behind her in second, and Oberhausen finished fourth. In the boys 100-yard breaststroke, River placed third while Hutchens placed sixth, and freshman Coleson King finished 10th.
With having a younger team, McFadden feels like every meet is preparing her swimmers for the postseason.
“I just try to encourage them to look at how much progress they’ve made and continue to make that progress,” McFadden said.
“I know we have a lot of middle schoolers that would love to make it to state, and my own son is one of them. He looks at these kids that are a foot taller, and I just want to encourage those kids to continue to work and continue to use what they have to their advantage, whether that is height or muscles or upper body strength or just even determination.”
