Sun staff
Clermont will have two individuals representing the county at the Division II Ohio State Championships at the CT Branin Natatorium on Thursday and Friday evening as Bethel-Tate’s Gracyn McQueary and New Richmond’s Jordyn Torrens will make the trek to Canton this week.
McQueary, a sophomore, and Torrens, a freshman, will both be making their maiden voyage to the state meet. (McQueary missed her freshman season due to shoulder surgery.) McQueary will compete in the 100 breaststroke, while Torrens will race in the 100 butterfly.
Both Torrens and McQueary are year-round swimmers with the Lady Lion swimming for the Anderson Barracudas out of the ME Lyons YMCA Pool and McQueary competing for the Kingfish Aquatic Club out of Anderson High School, just a few minutes down the road from the Y.
Both will be competing on the same swim deck and in back-to-back events. McQueary, who was a sectional champion in the 100 breaststroke, finished in fourth place in the district with a time of 1:06.29, more than a second and a half faster than her sectional time. She had the fifth-fastest qualifying time in the state.
Torrens, who also competed in the 100 backstroke, 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay at the district meet, finished in eighth place in the fly with a time of 58.73, knocking nearly five full seconds off of her sectional time. That time qualified her in 16th in the state.
“Jordyn has done a great job,” New Richmond head coach Judy Middeler. “As a freshman to be able to make it (to state), she was thrilled that she is able to go up.
“There’s a lot of kids that swim year-round and they still never make it, so she was very thrilled and so are we.”
Torrens is the second New Richmond swimmer to compete in the state meet in the last two years following in the footsteps of Tyler David. Middeler credits a line of recent state qualifiers for inspiring not only Torrens and David, but also a new crop of up-and-comers in the New Richmond program dating back to Nate Kramer in 2007.
Both Torrens and McQueary will compete in the preliminary heats on Thursday, Feb. 26 with the event finals the following evening should they advance.
Other district results: 20 other Clermont County athletes competed at the district tournament over the week of Feb. 16.
Division I divers from Glen Este and Milford competed on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at Miami University. Glen Este’s pair of Bethany Berger and Baylee Lawson finished in 20th and 24th place, respectively.
Milford divers Cole Dunham and Zach Lorenz finished in 18th and 23rd, respectively.
Eagles freshman Joel Adams finished in ninth place at the district, missing out on a trip to state by 11 points.
Competing on Friday in Division II alongside Torrens were Claire Burns, Ryan Allen and Alicia Bailey in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays. Both teams set school records. The 400 freestyle relay team finished in 14th place with a time of 4:02.07 and the 200 medley relay time of 2:04.38 was good enough for 21st place.
Also, the Lions’ boys 400 freestyle team of Austin Berger, Noah David, Derek Gelter and TJ Gelter posted their best time of the season, 3:58.10, finishing in 22nd.
On Sunday at the Division I district, eight individuals from Milford also had impressive days despite not qualifying for the state tournament.
The girls 400 freestyle relay team of Cora Striet, Megan Hardewig, Katey Pena and Arija Walsh earned the best finish of the day coming in 18th, four seconds slower than a 15th-place finish that would have put them in the state conversation.
The boys 400 freestyle relay team of Tyler Karan, Jan Rae Chavez, Jarrod Higgins and Paul Keefer finished in 24th place. Keefer, competing individually in the 100 breaststroke, came in 31st.
Complete district tournament results and state qualifiers can be found at swimmeet.com.