Staff report
Sidney High School head swim coach Mary Jannides was recently named the All-Greater Western Ohio Conference North Division Girls Coach of the Year, the league announced.
In addition, several Sidney swimmers were also recognized for being selected to the All-GWOC North Division teams.
For the boys, the 200 free relay team of Logan Johnson, Elliot Wilson, Collin McClain and Chase VanTilburgh was named to the first team, as was VanTilburgh for the 100-breaststroke.
VanTilburgh was second-team in the 50-free, Johnson second team in the 100 breaststroke, and Logan Searcy, Johnson, VanTilburgh and McClain were second team in the 200 medley relay.
“The boys team had a great season,” said Jannides. “They were 6-1 in dual meets, second in their own invitational, third in the GWOC North, and they finished eighth out of 18 teams in the GWOC championships.”
There were two longstanding school records that were broken this year.
Logan Searcy, Logan Johnson, Chase VanTilburgh and Collin McClain broke the 200 medley relay record that had stood for 14 years with a 1:41.58 at the district meet. That was four seconds lower than the previous mark was set by Derick Roe, Mark Miller, Chris Frantz and Akira Okamoto.
And Johnson broke a record that had stood for 31 years when he swam a 1:02.56 in the 100 breaststroke. Alan Holtslander was the previous record-holder in the event, setting the mark back in 1986.
Meanwhile, the girls finished seventh in the GWOC North and qualified three relay teams to the GWOC Championships this season.
“Next year’s team will be experienced and have freshmen coming in that should add more experience to the team,” said Jannides.
Awards program
Sidney High also honored its boys and girls swim teams at a recent awards program, and included were several special awards in each.
Coach Jannides handed out Most Valuable Swimmer awards to three swimmers, including Emili Aselage for the girls and Logan Johnson and Elliot Wilson for the boys.
Most Improved awards went to Rebekah Roller and Caleb Johnson, and Rookie of the Year awards went to Lydia Brewer, Wesley Brubaker and Nathan Johnson.
Sportsmanship Awards went to Jennifer Barnes and Collin McClain, and Coach’s Awards went to Emily Jones and Nobel Zhou.
Greater Western Ohio Conference Scholar Athlete Award recipients were Logan Johnson, Wilson, Aselage, Kiana Calvert, Helena Shoukri and Emily Wiesenmayer.
