Depth, diving key to Wooster’s hopes in NEAC swim championships

  • brian questel
  • December 28, 2011
  • 401
                        
010112 NEACswimpre Promo: General swim teams looking to add second phase of NEAC titles to resumes Depth, diving key to Wooster’s hopes in NEAC swim championships By Brian Questel The Northeast Aquatic Conference championship season continues. With Wooster High already having won both the girls’ and boys’ NEAC Relays titles, it will set its sights on the championship meet portion of the NEAC triumvirate to be held in Wooster Jan. 7-8. The diving competition will be held Friday night in Wooster beginning at 6 p.m., with the swimming portion returning to Wooster’s Ellen Shapiro Natatorium beginning at noon. Both Wooster coaches, Chris Matthew and Jeff DeHaan, are expecting to make a strong run for the title, and both are also in agreement – depth is going to play a key role in the final outcome. “I’m waiting until after the Wadsworth meet (Dec. 27) and putting a couple of people in other events to make sure we have the right lineup (for NEACs),” said Matthew, whose team shared the relays’ crown with Boardman. “It’s going to come down to the third swimmer. If our third girl can beat Boardman’s third swimmer, we can win.” “Nobody has a clear shot (at the boys’ title),” said DeHaan. “No one is out front and the rest chasing. Canfield is one of the favorites, GlenOak is in the mix because they were third in the relay meet, we should be fighting for the championship and Warren Harding… has some studs who should get in the top three in a lot of events. Depth is going to make the difference.” Diving, too, is an area where both squads hope they can score. “Diving is going to play a big role for us especially,” said DeHaan. “We have divers. Harding has a couple … and Canfield has been known come up with one. We’re going to be relying on our diving crew, Javan Starkey, Cooper Orr and Troy Chipka, to give us a good start Friday. “ “I have to be careful to get people in the right events and then people have to come through,” said Matthew. “Hopefully all three of our divers will be competitive. If we can get all three scoring, that will help. Boardman only has two and we have three. This is a tournament set-up for diving, so that will be critical. Kate Persinger has looked great, but the other two will have to get their 11 dives in and score. “I think relays our will be stronger and we’ve had good splits, but with relays, all four splits have to perform well together.” DeHaan echoed the need for a strong showing from his relays as well. “Those are critical. Our relays need be in the top three,” said DeHaan. “Warren, Canfield and Boardman all have a fast relay … I don’t see us winning a relay like we did in 2010 when we beat Canfield. … Our goal is to be in the top three of each relay. We may not have the top-end depth to pull off a victory, but we’re deep enough to be second or third and that’s key. “Obviously, our third guy has to finish inside Harding, Canfield and GlenOak’s third guy. If we can, we can take them out with our depth. I don’t see us winning a lot of championships, but if our top three can get inside their top three or get three in the top eight (placers), we have a good chance to win the meet.” While Wooster won last year on the boys’ side, the first-place trophy has eluded the girls for several years. “We haven’t won in six years,” said Matthew. “The last time we won was in 2006. We lost by one points two years ago and without a DQ we woulda won. Last year we were down 13 points. We’ve been so close. Our goal is to win it and hopefully that will happen. “As we were running the bleachers (Wednesday morning), I said notice (the NEAC banners) and that we haven’t won since 2006. We won the relays … it’s doable.”


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