Sports
Lakewood's Brink Earns Personal Bests At District
Senior swimmer has two top-12 finishes; Ranger boys finish in 25th place.
senior Brian Brink had a pair of top 12 finishes in the Division I district swim meet Saturday afternoon at Cleveland State to help the Rangers to 25th place in the team standings with 14 points.
Brink opened with an 11th place finish in the always competitive 50-yard free with a personal best time of 22.44 seconds. He then swam in the second of four heats of the 100 free to place 12th with another personal best time of 49.42.
"I'm really excited about my times," said Brink. "I knew I could do better than I did in the sectionals and I'm glad to move up from where I was seeded in both events. They were personal bests for me in both events."
Brink was seeded 30th in the 50 free and entered the 100 free tied for 26th in the seeding of 40 Division I swimmers.
also had freshman Sarah Neff and sophomore Maddie Mahoney reach the district in two events at CSU while senior Kyle Meggas was in one individual event and junior Michael Pearlman was entered in diving.
Neff was 27th in both the 200 free and 500 free, getting a 2:02.32 in the 200 and a 5:29.35 in the 500, with both clocking better than her sectional times a week earlier.
Mahoney took 20th in the 100 fly with a 1:03.27 and 34th of 50 in the 50 free with a 26.00. Once again, both times were better than those posted by Mahoney in the sectional.
Meggas had a season best 1:54.00 out of the second heat of the 200 free to cut time from his district qualifying swim at the Lakewood sectional.
The Rangers also qualified their girls 200 medley relay to the district, taking 17th with a 1:57.69 using Neff and Mahoney along with seniors Ellen Schlenkerman and Amanda Dreistadt.
In diving two days earlier at CSU, Pearlman nearly reached the state meet with 353.50 points, placing 14th where 12 divers move on to Canton.
The Rangers were also represented in the coach of the year balloting as Lakewood High alum Tom Stacy, now head coach at Strongsville, was honored as boys coach of the year for the district after the Mustangs won the boys team title.