Wooster High girls win OCC swim title, boys second

Wooster High girls win OCC swim title, boys second
Vicki Bosler-Kilmer

Wooster High’s Michael Buchholz, left, and Santi Salazar, middle, shared Ohio Cardinal Conference Swimmer of the Year on the boys side while Alessandra Gerber, right, was named OCC Swimmer of the Year for the girls, who also won the team title at the OCC Championships on Jan. 18 at WHS.

                        

The Wooster High girls swim team, led by a record-setting performance from Alessandra Gerber, ran away with the Ohio Cardinal Conference championship in the OCC meet hosted by the Generals on Jan. 18.

What turned out to be a very good day for the hosts could have been a great one, but the WHS boys, already small in numbers and battling some illnesses Saturday, were edged out by Lexington for the boys crown by a mere four points (438-434).

The Wooster girls racked up 503 points to easily outdistance runner-up Lexington (379), with Ashland third (363), followed by New Philadelphia (245), Madison (183) and Mansfield senior (121).

Gerber, only a sophomore, bested the conference record by more than two seconds in winning the 100 breaststroke and just missed a second record in winning the 200 IM.

She also anchored the winning 400 freestyle relay with Miley Green, Lauren Hershberger and Piper Udell and won the 200 medley relay with Green, Ellie Hansen and Olivia Kelly.

“She did the fastest 50 breaststroke split ever on the medley relay,” WHS coach Chris Matthew said of Gerber. “Having her on the team certainly helps.”

Udell contributed with solo wins in the 200 and 500 free while Green joined Gerber and Udell as double-winners by sweeping the 50 and 100 free events as the WHS girls won every event but the diving, 100 back and 100 fly.

On the boys side, Lex and Wooster were followed in the team standings by Ashland (322), Senior (258), New Philadelphia (246) and Madison (192).

Despite the narrow team loss, Wooster did have seniors Michael Buchholz and Santiago Salazar share the OCC Swimmer of the Year award.

Buchholz captured the 50 and 100 freestyle swims, Santiago won the 200 IM and 100 back, and both were part of two winning relay quartets, teaming with sophomore Aidan McMillan and freshman Jack Shindollar to take both the 200 and 400 free relays. Shindollar added a pair of individual seconds.

“They swam lights out,” Matthew said, “but we had some illness that affected our final score.”

The OCC boys race was the closest in conference history.


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