Hazelwood Sharks Nip Bellefontaine Barracudas In Municipal Swim League Event

One of Todd Ankenbrand’s favorite sayings when it comes to the swim team he coaches, the Hazelwood Sharks, is “winning is the least important thing.”

He tells the members of his team that, and he told several sets of parents the same thing after the Sharks’ first home meet of the summer Thursday night at the White Birch Park Pool, affectionately known as “The Shark Tank.”

“It’s not about winning,” Ankenbrand said. “It’s about improving your skills, beating your last time, and just getting better.”

That being said, the Sharks and including its coach was a pretty happy group late Thursday night when it was announced following the evening’s final event that Hazelwood had won the meet. The team defeated the visiting opponent, the Bellefontaine Barracudas, 467-461.

“Don’t get me wrong, it does feel good to win,” Ankenbrand said. “Especially for the kids. They’re all excited.”

Indeed they should be.

The Sharks swam well as an entire team, winning 36 of the 70 events, while Bellefontaine fell slightly short after winning the other 34 events.

Hazelwood did particularly well in the 15 to 18 year-old competitions.

On the boys' side, students Matt Geiser, LaTrae Lane and Peter Hancock were all part of the Sharks winning freestyle and medley relay teams.

Geiser also won the individual medley and the individual freestyle, which Lane took second. Hancock won the individual backstroke and the individual butterfly, as well.

Other Hazelwood West High students won the freestyle relay including: Julia Nichols, Samantha Schreck, Samantha Zaiz and Grace Hotchkiss. They also won the freestyle relay, and later took second in the medley relay. Hotchkiss raced with a different pairing in the medley relay, so Laura Hawkins replaced Hotchkiss in that race with the aforementioned group.

Nichols and Hotchkiss also won individual races for the Sharks. Nichols took first place in the individual freestyle. Hotchkiss came in first in the individual butterfly.

In the 13 to 14-year-old girls competition, Hazelwood continued to show complete domination by again winning every event at that level.

The freestyle relay team of Annie Kuhn, Abigail Simms, Hollie Woods and Emma Luem easily won its race. Teammates Annie Fitzgerald, Anna Schreck, Julianna Geiser and Jessica Nichols saw the same success in the medley relay.

Luem also won the individual freestyle, while Schreck took home the individual medley. Two other teammates―Emily Garnier and Kara Libby―took first and second in the breaststroke.

“Those girls are amazing,” Ankenbrand said. “They’ve all been racing together so long, that they all just mesh together real well.”

One of the younger swimmers who had a particularly good night was Jessica Schreckm, a 9 to 10-year-old girls category competitor.

She won two individual events that included the individual medley and the individual breastroke. She was also part of the 10-year-old freestyle and medley relay teams that took second in both categories.

Her little sister, Mattison Schreck, competed in the 7 to 8-year-old girls events. She won the individual breastroke and was on Hazelwood’s winning freestyle relay team with classmates Mira Isaacs, Lydia Randazzo and Annie Simms.

“We’ve really been working hard with all our swimmers on improving their strokes,” Ankenbrand said. “We really try not to put the same kids in the same events all the time. We’d like to expose them to as many events as possible.”  

Hazelwood’s next home meet is scheduled for Thursday, June 30, when the Sharks will host Ferguson at the Shark Tank.

The meet is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.