West Geauga Swimmers Defeat Brush Arcs in Decisive Victories

January 18, 2024

The West Geauga swim team traveled to John Carroll University Jan. 10 to take on the Brush Arcs.

Both the boys and girls teams had excellent performances, defeating the Arcs 96-11 and 74-55, respectively.

After the meet, West Geauga Head Coach Kyle Johnson talked about the team’s performance.

Overall, Johnson was pleased. He believed his team did really well since there were many open lanes during this dual meet. In fact, in races, the Wolverines swimmers had to race against themselves, which he emphasized is very difficult.

Johnson also talked about some specific highlights of the dual meet with the Arcs — in particular, Mason Towey’s 500 Free. Although Towey had his second best time of the season, Johnson said that it was a noteworthy performance because he was racing on his own in a distance event, which is very difficult to do.

The girls who swam the breaststroke were also a highlight.

“I was very impressed with our girl’s breaststrokers. Lot’s of them were freshmen,” Johnson said.

Lucy Burkhard, who won the Girls 100 breaststroke, said she thought her team “did really well.”

“I think everyone is working really hard at practice, and it’s really showing at the meets,” she said. “We actually won a couple relays, and a lot of people won their individual events. So we’ve come a long way.”

As Burkhard mentioned, the West Geauga girls won a few relays including the 400m Relay (Mackenzie Hensel, Santina Iannetta, Emily Fousek, Lucy Burkhard) and the 200m Medley Relay (Emily Fousek, Lucy Burkhard, Mackenzie Hensel, Santina Iannetta).

In addition, the Wolverines boys won the 400m Relay (Clarke Caudill, Trevor Grinstead, Parker Pacifico, Liam Thompson), the 200m Freestyle Relay (Aidan Sens, Clarke Caudill, Austin Morris, Mason Towey) and the 200m Medley Relay (Zach Verner, Austin Morris, Aidan Sens, Mason Towey).

After the meet, Wolverines boys team captain Aidan Sens talked about his team’s excellent meet.

“I think the team did really great today,” Sens said. “Everyone, I think, did outstanding. I saw a lot of improvement with the team overall, so I’m really proud of them.”

Sens also mentioned how cohesive the 200 Freestyle Relay team is.

“In the free relay, I love how reliable my team is because we had some of our best guys on there and we did outstanding,” he said. “I thought all of us got great times in (that relay).”

With the excellent performances against the Arcs, Wolverines swimmers will now prepare for the Chagrin Valley Conference Tournament at Hawken on Jan. 19 and 20.

Coach Johnson talked about mindset heading into the CVC tournament.

“We’re just looking for personal growth in the development of our swimmers,” he said. “One of my favorite things to do is to keep track of times throughout the season and see as a team how much we drop. And I find that the CVC is usually one of our best meets. They get hyped to go in there. They all come to swim. So I’m really looking forward to seeing the competitive races and the different heats with kids that are timed similarly to them to see how they race. I’m really looking forward to that.”