Wayne County Life

By John Addyman

NEWARK – The Lady Reds dominated the relay events and had solid performances throughout the lineup tonight, beating a short-staffed Gananda squad, 117-60, and handling Geneva, 103-74.

     “Our girls brought a lot of energy to the meet,” said Newark coach Danielle Ohlson. “We’re working to bring an incredible pysch to the second half of the season. Our goal is to win the league.”

     Newark threw down the challenge to the other squads in the first event, the 200 medley relay. Hannah Marvin, Krista VerMeersch, Danielle Peets and Lauren Allen won the event in 2:10.31, with the leg Peets swam the difference.

     Chelsea Power (2:10.82) and Morgan Dailey (2:24.23) were one-two in the 200 Free.

VerMeersch came back to take second in the 200 individual medley, behind Geneva’s McKenzie Ritter (2:33.96).

     Newark’s Marvin took the win in the 50 Free (28.54), Peets powered to second overall in the 100 butterfly (1:14.30) behind Geneva’s Emily Taegder-Vrooman, and Chelsea Power cut a wake through the water, winning the 100 Free (58.61).

     Caroline Gardener left the field behind in diving (187.50). Gardener, a Newark senior, laid claim to her own two lines in the Newark record book a week ago, posting scores of 239.1 (six dives) and 402.35 (11 dives) at the Gananda Invitational. Those scores are records at Gananda and rewrote a Newark mark that had belonged to Eilish Leene since 1978.

     Newark diving coach Dale Binggeli said Gardener’s diving continues to improve. “She is very precise and her form is terrific,” the coach said. “She’s pretty demanding on herself.”

     In the 500 free, Gananda’s Jessica Bade set the stage for the race that occurred in the last 40 feet when Newark’s Allen and Geneva’s Hannah Jacon dueled for the touch. Allen won (6:19.13) with Jacon second (6:19.57), just nosing out Bade (6:10.10).

     “That was the best 500 time for Jessica this year,” said Gananda coach Karen Orcutt. “The Newark and Geneva girls paced on her.”

     Newark showed more muscle in the 200 free relay, with Power, VerMeersch, Brittani Robinson and Allen touching at 1:52.68, half a pool ahead of Geneva.

     Geneva’s Ritter won the 100 backstroke (1:11.84) with Newark’s Marvin second (1:14.70). VerMeersch cruised to a win in the 100 breaststroke, and then the Lady Reds finished the meet by winning the 400 free relay with Power, Marvin, Robinson and Allen leading all the way (4:16.40) and the Ledy Red second squad doing well – Leah Marvin, Morgan Johnson, Morgan Daily and Sam Diaz-Cruz finished in 4:28.40.

     Ohson pointed out that Morgan Dailey qualified for sectionals with her time in the 100 backstroke, and added that a strength for this team is how well the second squads did, especially in the relays. “We won all three relays,” she said, “but how our ‘B’ teams did will help us in dual meets coming up. Not only are our top girls performing, the other girls who make up our depth are swimming with a lot of heart and that makes us a team.”

     Gananda’s Alex Cunningham qualified for sectionals with her time in the 100 fly (1:21.49).

“We did okay,” said Orcutt, “for our team not being healthy. My goal for next year is to have everybody participate at every meet. I have 15 girls, and we swam 12 today. Jessica Bade swam well but she’s been sick at home and hasn’t been in the water for five days. That’s how our season has been going.”