St. Paul's Schaffer reaches state 'A' finals

CANTON — The goal was achieved. St. Paul senior Jarret Schaffer made school history last season when he placed 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke at the Division II state championships. After swimming to a time of 59.21 seconds last week at the district championships in Bowling Green — a new program record mark he set last season — the goal for Schaffer was to swim his way into the top eight and the 'A' finals race this season. That goal was reached Thursday night, as Schaffer was clocked at 59.58 seconds, the seventh-best time out of 24 swimmers in the state preliminaries at C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton. Schaffer will swim among the top eight tonight, and has again clinched All-Ohio honors. This time, however, he will be the first swimmer in program history to stand atop the podium with a medal around his neck. "It's going to be a race with some extremely fast swimmers," St. Paul coach Stacy Stoll said. "But at this point, no matter where Jarret places, he's going to be among those top eight. And that alone is huge for our school, our program — and most importantly for him and his family. "Jarret had already set a higher standard for our kids to work for," she added. "This will be a fitting end for him and his career." Schaffer also competed in the 50 freestyle Thursday night, finishing 24th in 22.78 seconds. Also Thursday, the 200 medley relay team of Andrew Schaffer, Jarret, Ryan Hedrick and Gavin Moffit swam to their No. 22 seed entering the event. The quartet clocked in at 1:42.84 in 22nd place. The relay is the first-ever from St. Paul to qualify for state. With the exception of Jarret Schaffer, the other three are underclassmen and will return next season. Stoll said as soon as the group caught their breath and left the pool area, the talk for 2021 was already underway. "They knew it wasn't their best time or what we wanted," she said. "We know this isn't a fast pool where a lot of records get broken. They got out and all kind of said, 'We've been here, and we're coming back.' They liked the feeling they had here and will be a huge thing for them to work for." But for now, the spotlight turns to Jarret for one final race tonight. Stoll knows it won't be as easy as just plugging in someone else into the relay. "Filling Jarret's spot next year won't be easy, but I'm positive we'll have quite a few boys working to get his spot for the relay and go from there," she said. "But the biggest thing from tonight is Jarett is going to be on the podium, and we've got three other boys who said, 'It's OK. We're coming back.'"