ROCKY RIVER, Ohio – Rocky River’s boys’ and girls’ swimming & diving teams have qualified into a combined 44 slots in 22 events in upcoming Northeast Ohio (boys) and Northwest Ohio (girls) district meets. [boys’ qualifiers | girls’ qualifiers].
On Friday, the River boys competed in the DII Akron Sectional at Ocasek Natatorium on the campus of the University of Akron. The Pirates took first place among 22 scoring teams. For the upcoming district meet, Rocky River qualified into eight individual events and three relays. Eleven athletes qualified into 19 slots in the meet.
Highlighting the qualifiers for the Pirate boys’ squad, senior Aiden Morris qualified in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle events. He’ll head to Cleveland State University – the site of the DII Northeast Ohio District meet – as the No. 2 seed in the 100 and the No. 3 seed in the 50. Morris is also a member of the Pirates’ 200 medley relay and 400 free relay, both of which qualified to advance.
River will send three boys to the starting blocks in both the 500 free (Michael Esdon, Philip Carter, Matthew Stankivicz) and 100 backstroke (Drew Helms, Nart Yilmaz, Henry Fritz). Esdon (200 free), Helms (200 individual medley), and Yilmaz (200 IM) are dual qualifiers for individual events.
On the girls’ side, the Pirates competed in the DI Lakewood Sectional on Saturday. River logged 25 qualifying slots in 11 events for its upcoming DI Northwest District meet. Thirteen athletes will fill those 25 slots. Busiest among them will be senior Anna Skapoulas (No. 3 seed in 200 free, No. 2 seed in 100 fly, member of two relays), freshman Gianna Miller (No. 3 seed in 50 free, No. 2 seed in 100 free, member of two relays), senior Morgan Schuld (200 free, 500 free, two relays), Ella Russell (No. 2 seed in 200 IM, No. 3 seed in 100 fly, two relays), Peyton Spearry (No. 1 seed in 100 free, No. 1 seed in 100 back, two relays).
Three River relays qualified for district waters, and all three will be tagged with top-3 tags. The girls’ squad will compete at Bowling Green State University in their next round of action.
by Skip Snow
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