The Mount Vernon Yellow Jackets' swimming season was on hiatus, and after three weeks of intensive training, the swimmers resumed competition at the Mansfield Senior High School Tyger Championship Invitational on Jan. 8.
The Yellow Jacket boys finished in seventh place among 14 teams, and the girls squad came in fifth, for a combined finish in fourth place.
Ontario swept both the team championships. The Warriors girls’ team tallied 435 points to outpace Shelby for the team title. The Whippets finished second with 376 points. Colonel Crawford came in third place with 308 points, Galion recorded 231 points to claim fourth place and Mount Vernon tallied 192 points for fifth among 12 schools
In the boys’ meet, Ontario out-pointed Colonel Crawford 440-423 to take home the first-place trophy. Willard came in third place with 185 points, host Mansfield Senior finished in fourth place with 183 points, Crestview was fifth with 181, Shelby sixth at 177 and Mount Vernon finished seventh of 14 schools, with with 157 points.
Staci Brenneman, MVHS assistant swim coach, said Mount Vernon swimmers performed many personal bests at the meet. Swimmers who lowered their best times included Olivia Adams in the 200-meter freestyle; Taylor Couch, Ava Dominguez, Tyler Davidson and Thomas Sant in the 50-meter freestyle; Maia Tazwell, Addy Steinmetz, Adams, Couch, Grace Laymon, Rebekah Lebold, Julie King, Bryan Sabula, Davidson, Devin Beckett, and Landon Rush in the 10-meter freestyle; and Clare Clarkson and Anna Rhodeback in the 100-meter backstroke.
Brenneman said, “Our swimmers of the meet are Olivia Adams for dropping 17 seconds in her 200 freestyle and 7 seconds in her 100 freestyle, and Thomas Sant for dropping half a second in his 50 freestyle to earn fifth place out of 41 swimmers."
