For Wilmington and Clinton-Massie swimmers, the waiting game begins.
The Division II Southwest District swim meet Thursday at Miami University was the first of four statewide districts to finish.
The Central District competition was expected to end Thursday evening while the Northwest and Northeast districts are not scheduled to be completed until Friday.
Once all districts are finished, results will be posted. With two automatic qualifiers from each event in each district qualifying to state, none of the Clinton County participants earned an berth Thursday.
But there also will be 16 at-large berths from all districts and that’s where the waiting begins.
Wilmington’s Jordan Davis finished sixth in the 100-yard backstroke (53.04) and eighth in the 100-yard freestyle (48.42) on Thursday. He has a good chance of making state in each event.
“Swimmer were swimming very quick today,” WHS head coach Mitch Hopf said. “I imagine with the times Jordan earned he should have a good shot at earning a trip to Canton in both events.”
Clinton-Massie’s Luke Lentine was 11th in the 200 free (1:50.75) and 12th in the 100 butterfly (53.88). Josh Andrews of Wilmington was 24th in the 100-yard breaststroke.
The Wilmington relay teams were 11th (400 free in 3:38.12) and 12th (200 medley in 1:49.11). Davis, Andrews, Landen Carpenter and Ben Baylor were on both relays. The 400 free relay bettered its best time by nearly six seconds, Hopf said.
So in a trying season that almost wasn’t, the Hurricane, and all swimmers for that matter, have learned to adapt and achieve.
“The weather that last two weeks hasn’t been ideal for (training) but our team has learned to be extremely flexible and roll with the punches and are grateful for even having a season,” Hopf said. “I honestly can’t say enough great things about these boys being as successful as they are with so little practice time throughout the season. They’ve remained positive when practices were cancelled and their work ethic has been phenomenal when we are in practice.”
