St. Paul girls second; Hedrick breaks record at Crawford Invitational

NORTH ROBINSON — The St. Paul High School boys and girls swim teams had a strong showing on Saturday at the Colonel Crawford "Eagle Sprint" Invitational. The girls team placed second in the 10-team field with 232 points behind champion Upper Sandusky (249). The boys took third among nine teams and had another record-breaking performance from senior Ryan Hedrick. Taking first for the Flyer girls included the 400-yard freestyle really team of Kali Kirby, Isabella Cuturic, Ines Morel and Isabel Gross in 4:38.7. Dinah Hay won the 25-yard freestyle in 13.03 seconds and was also fourth in the 50 breaststroke (41.3). Placing second for the St. Paul girls included Cuturic in the 100 free (1:15.57). Gross was third in the 100 backstroke (1:32.99), while Kirby was third in both the 100 IM (1:24.91) and 50 fly (33.42). The 200 freestyle relay of Lynn Beal, Samantha Gocsik, Kirby and Hay took third in 2:03.54, while Beal was third in the 25 free (13.32) and Gocsik was fourth in the 50 free (30.44). Placing fourth was the 200 medley relay of Gocsik, Hay, Beal and Cuturic in 2:30.5. On the boys side, Hedrick set a new meet record in the 25 freestyle in 10.47 seconds. He also won the 50 breaststroke in 29.23 seconds. Hedrick teamed with Andrew Schaffer, Alex Stine and Aaron Schaffer to win the 200 free relay in 1:38.39. Bryce Wnek placed second in the 100 free in 56:67 seconds, while Michael Howerton was fourth in 58.70 seconds in the same race. Howerton was also fourth in 100 fly in 1:06.95. Two other relays were third for St. Paul, including the 200 medley of Andrew Schaffer, Hedrick, Howerton and Stine in 1:51.49. The 400 free relay of Stine, Gage Hackenburg, Howerton and Wnek was third in 4:02.34. Individually, Aaron Schaffer was third in the 100 IM (1:04.18) and 100 breaststroke (1:11.26). Andrew Schaffer was third in the 25 free (11.06) and fourth in the 100 backstroke (1:04.17). Rounding out top four finishers was Stine in the 50 free (26.26) and Nick Centa (35.16) in the 50 backstroke. Norwalk, Willard compete at SBCs OAK HARBOR — The Norwalk and Willard swim teams placed among the top four in 11 different events on Saturday at the Sandusky Bay Conference Lake and Bay Division swim championships. In the Lake Division, Norwalk's 200-yard medley relay of Kaiden Rath, Skyler Cross, Ethan Schmenk and Griffin Butcher placed third in 1:59.35. Individually, Schmenk was third in the 200 IM (2:21.41) and fifth in the 100 butterfly (58.41). Rath was fourth in the 100 backstroke (1:13.88) and Cross was fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:16.45). In the Bay Division, Willard's Mason Carnahan won the 100 freestyle in 53.4 seconds and took second in the 200 free in 1:58.5. He then teamed up in the 200 free relay with Javier Villalon-Lopez, Braylon Long and Caden Urie to place third in 1:42.99. For the Willard girls, Addie Stephens was third in the 100 free (1:01.16) and fourth in the 50 free (27.04). Ellen Fox was third in the 100 backstroke (1:14.13), then she teamed with Stephens, Emily Danhoff and Courtney Stuckey to place fourth in the 200 free relay in 1:56.77. WRESTLING St. Paul's Caizzo second at Newark Catholic NEWARK — St. Paul state-ranked sophomore Casper Caizzo bumped up a weight and placed second on Saturday at the 60th annual Newak Catholic Invitational. St. Paul finished seventh among the 12-team small-school division. Caizzo — ranked No. 4 at 106 pounds by borofanohio.net — fell to Mentor Lake Catholic's Joey Romano in the finals at 113 pounds. Also for the Flyers, No. 17-ranked Aiden Nasemen (138) went 2-2, and Tristan Nickoli was 1-2. St. Paul will compete at the Division III duals on Jan. 28-28 at St. Mary Central Catholic in Sandusky. Trojans place two at Freddie Invite FREDERICKTOWN — The South Central wrestling team placed a pair on Saturday at the Freddie Invitational. At 165 pounds, Brandon Smith was second, while Diton Farnsworth was third at 113. Smith finished 4-1 on the day with three pins and one decision to improve to 19-8 for the season. Farnsworth went 2-2 to improve his record to 16-8 on the season. Both his victories came by pin. "They both wrestled well and they each were challenged," South Central coach Ken Johnson said. "We have a few things to work on, but they are both improving each week." JUNIOR HIGH St. Paul places five at Norwalk NORWALK — The St. Paul junior high wrestling team placed five wrestlers on Saturday at the Norwalk Middle School Invitational. Raphael Gross was second at 150 pounds, while Xander Gfell-King (104) and Zeke Dvorak (110) both placed third, followed by Levi Rospert (98) in fourth and Adam Dowdell (98) in fifth. Gross was 4-1 on the day with wins by pin in 44 seconds and 1:29. In the finals, Gross fell to Edison's Ben James by a 6-1 decision. Gfell-King also went 4-1 with a pair of pins in 1:58 and 1:20. He lost 10-4 in the semifinals, then pinned Vermilion's Zach Werth in one minute to take third. Dvorak also finished 4-1 with a pin (2:26) and major decision (13-2). He lost in the semis to Norwalk's Gavin Lesley, then won in overtime by a 6-4 score for third over Bellevue's Zach Beatty. Rospert finished 3-2 at 9 pounds with a pair of major decision wins (18-6, 10-2). He lost in the semis, then posted a 9-5 win over Margaretta's Blake Brenner to end fourth. Dowdell finished 4-1 with two pins in 47 seconds and 2:32, He won a 6-3 decision in the semis, then won his final match over Edison's Colton Ritz by pin in 2:20. At 134, Landon Kenneback went 1-1 on the day, with his win by pin at 1:16. Also wrestling for the Flyers was Camden Coetzee.