Canton Central Catholic took control from the start of the Division II sectional girls swim meet Saturday at the University of Akron’s Ocasek Natatorium.
The Crusaders won the first three races and never trailed the competition in the 19-team field to win their second sectional title in a row. CCC scored 448 points.
“We have a big team and we have a lot of versatile swimmers,” CCC coach Mark Rogers said. “We have got a few swimmers who we could have put in any event tonight and they would have still done well. It is just a matter of who can get the furthest in the postseason.”
Archbishop Hoban placed second in the team standings with 307 points. Senior Megan Kudlac won the Knights’ lone individual championship by clocking a 5 minutes, 29.19 seconds in the 500-yard freestyle.
Kudlac also anchored Hoban’s first-place 400 freestyle relay that clocked 3:53.48. Junior Annie Zielasko, sophomore Alex Jackson and sophomore Abby Blinka swam the first three legs.
CCC junior Mary Mazey contributed to four first-places finishes. Individually, she won the 200 freestyle in 2:02.42 and the 100 breast stroke in 1:09.14.
Crusaders freshman Gabrielle Butz won the 200 individual medley in 2:26.83.
Mazey and Butz were half of CCC’s 200-yard medley relay that won in 1:56.56. The other two swimmers on the unit were senior Gabby dePeralta and junior Allison Smith.
CCC also won the 200 freestyle relay with dePeralta, Mazey, senior Samantha Platek and Smith combining to finish in 1:43.84.
“I am just really proud of our team and how we did,” Mazey said. “The excitement is really overwhelming. Our fans are like the best thing ever. They are all like family.”
The top two in each event automatically advance to next week’s district meet at Cleveland State University’s Busbey Natatorium.
Mazey said all four events she placed first in were season-best times.
“I really want to go to the state meet and I just want to go really fast,” Mazey said.
Rogers, 27, is a 2002 graduate of CCC. He said the Crusaders have 42 girls on the team with camaraderie that is “unreal.”
“It is fun from beginning to end for these guys,” Rogers said. “The size of our team is about the same size as a lot of bigger schools, but we only have about 400 kids in our school.”
Rogers’ father, Rick Rogers, is a CCC assistant. He was an official for the Division I North sectional girls meet Saturday afternoon.
Michael Beaven can be reached at 330-996-3829 or mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the high school blog at http://www.ohio.com/preps. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MBeavenABJ and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/sports.abj.
