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Sports

Mustang Swimmers Excel At District

Meldon dominates, sets District records; all relay teams advance to State championships.

Behind Michael Meldon's first place finishes in the 50-yard free and 100 free, the Strongsville boys swim team was able to claim the Division I district title on Saturday afternoon at Cleveland State.

"We're set up well for next week," said Strongsville coach Tom Stacy, referring to the Division I state meet in Canton. "And Michael is getting better and better." Meldon is a two-time 2011 district champion who broke the district record with a time of 44.70 seconds in the 100 free and then swam on two district winning relays.

Meldon, who reached the state in both events last year and reached the finals in the 100 free in Canton, had help in pushing the Mustangs to the district team title with 281 points. Strongsville clinched the team title with a win in the 400 free relay, topping fellow Northeast Ohio Conference members Hudson (252 points)  and Solon (246) .

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That help came from fellow senior Colin Lyon, who was third to Meldon in the 50 free and dropped a spot to fourth in the 100 free to become an automatic qualifier to the state meet in both events along with Meldon.

That list of automatic qualifiers for the Mustangs includes sophomore Mitchell Delventhal, who dropped nearly eight seconds from his 200 free time to finish seventh with a 1:44.98.

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Delventhal then pulled another major time cut in placing fourth in the 500 free. At the Lakewood sectional a week earlier, Delventhal was clocked in 5:07.10. At Saturday's district meet, Delventhal roared out of the third seed to a fourth-place finish in 4:44.21. Solon's Jamie Gallagher won the event with a time of 4:41.11.

The Mustangs qualified all three relays, winning the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay after placing fifth in the 200 medley relay to open the meet.

The 200 free relay team of Meldon, junior Joey Ferrante, senior Chris Hoffman and Lyon time in at 1:25.12, breaking the previous district mark set last year by North Canton Hoover (1:25.73). In the 400 free relay, the Mustang foursome of Delventhal, Hoffman, Meldon and Lyon posted a time of 3:08.50 - nearly eclipsing the previous district mark of 3:08.12 set by St. Ignatius in 2000.

The 200 medley relay team of freshman Ian Simpson, seniors Craig Barrus and Danny Nemeth along with Ferrante, swam a 1:38.07. St. Ignatius won this event with a time of 1:35.31.

The Strongsville girls had another strong outing at Cleveland State, placing third in team scoring behind Northeast Ohio Conference (NOC) schools Hudson and Mayfield. The Mustangs placed third despite having no swimmer finish higher than fifth in any individual event.

Mustang freshman Gabi D'Abato, who finished fifth in the 100 breaststroke, earned an automatic qualification to state with her time of 1:07.91.

The Mustangs qualified its 200 medley relay with a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay and a fifth place in the 200 free relay.

Strongsville quartet of junior Briana Schrage, D'Abato, junior Maddy Kawiecki, and freshman Molly Washko posted a time of 1:49.47 in their 200 medley relay. In the 200 free relay, the team of Washko, D'Abato, Granger and sophomore Jenna Barrus finished with a 1:39.29 - good enough to advance to Canton next weekend.

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