D2 Sectional Meet Recap for Poland Swim Team
Contributed by: Tommy Mihalopoulos
This past Friday, the Poland Swim Team competed at the Division 2 Sectional held at the University of Akron.
On the girls’ side, Julia Eich, senior and Lucienne Hopps, freshman, swam personal bests in both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle. Junior Preslie Bodine competed in the 50 freestyle and the 100 breaststroke, qualifying for districts in both events’ seed placements of 27th and 7th respectively.
The boys team had a stellar showing in their district qualifying medley relay of Van Blasko, Gabe Bettross, Matthew Matiste and Ian Vandervort. The boys 400 freestyle relay of Christopher Lattanzio, Matthew Matiste, Ian Vandervort and Van Blasko also qualified for districts and shattered the previous team record with a time 3:28.91.
Individually, Christopher Lattanzio, junior, placed second in the 200-yard freestyle with a record breaking time of 1:48.07 and took first place in the 100 yard freestyle with another team record time of 48.40.
Senior Van Blasko placed second in the 100 freestyle with a time of 48.63 and placed fourth in the 100 yard backstroke with a new record of 55.37.
Lattanzio and Blasko will enter the district meet as the fastest two 100 yard freestylers in Northeast Ohio.
Sophomore Matthew Matiste placed fourth in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 56.88, claiming the 12th place district seed
Freshman Ian Vandervort swam a 23.42 in the 50 free and a 52.07 in the 100-yard freestyle qualifying for districts in both.
Other notable swims included Gabe Bettross dropping 14 seconds in his 200 freestyle and Colin Linert’s 59.94 in the 100-yard freestyle.
The district qualifiers will be competing next Friday at Cleveland State University with the state meet in their sights.
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