Avon's Runge, Cvetic Advance To State Swim Championship

senior Elliot Runge put himself in great position to advance to the Division II state swimming and diving championships next week at the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton with a pair of fourth-place finishes in the Division II district meet at Cleveland State.

It became official Sunday morning when the Ohio High School Athletic Association announced the state qualifying list.

Runge just missed automatic qualification in both the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breast with those fourth-place finishes as both events were won by swimmers from University School at CSU's Robert Busbey Natatorium. The top three in each event advance to the state meet.

In the 200 IM, Runge was clocked in 2 minutes, 2.34 seconds where Nicholas Crane of University School was the winner with a time of 1:55.14.

The Eagle senior then got his bookend fourth place finish at Cleveland State with a 59.74 in the 100 breast with the top spot going to Andrew Malone of US with a 55.77.

Runge advances as an at-large entry to Canton's state championships where each event will include 24 swimmers. Avon's other state qualifier is diver Alaina Cvetic. Earlier in the week at Cleveland State, Cvetic placed third in scoring with 307.60 points. Mackenzie Tweardy of Elyria Catholic placed first with 470.85 points.

Diving is scheduled to take place on Wednesday at 9 a.m. followed by swimming on Thursday (prelims) and Friday (finals). Starting times for both days is 5 p.m.