Ranger Swim Team Splits with Valley Forge on Senior Night

The swim and diving team celebrated Senior Night with a split against visiting Valley Forge in a Northeast Ohio Conference Lake Division meet Wednesday night where four Ranger seniors came away with individual victories.

The Rangers, who are in the water next when they host a Jan. 26 meet with St. Edward and St. Joseph Academy, also had a pair of double win nights from a pair of underclass girls in a 130-45 win over th Patriots while the Lakewood boys fell short of Valley Forge, 105-80.

"This is a good group of kids," said Lakewood swim coach Jim Stacy of his outgoing seniors. "They let me have fun again in coaching over the last 2-3 years. They made the most out of their opportunities. We graduate 14 kids and I just wish some of them had started swimming earlier and I had them to coach when they were 9-10 years old."

Senior Lakewood girls Emily Buelow and Amanda Dreistadt boosted the Rangers with Buelow winning the 500-yard free with a 6:08.16 and junior Paige Smigelski second at 6:28.09. Dreistadt claimed the 50 free with a 28.19 as Ranger senior Ellen Schleckman was second at 30.96.

The underclass success for the Ranger girls came from sophomore Maddie Mahoney and freshman Sarah Neff, who both won twice over the Patriots.

Mahoney raced to first in the 200 free with a 2:09.14 where Lakewood senior Alyssia Ocejo was second in 2:13.65. Mahoney then added a win in the 100 free with a 58.18 in a 1-2-3 Lakewood finish with freshman Olivia Lawrence second in 1:01.54 and Smigelski third in 1:05.77.

Neff opened by winning the 200 individual medley with a 2:24.61 with Lakewood sweeping behind a second from freshman Grace Bulchik in 2:44.28 and a third from senior Brodie Hartsel in 2:47.82.

The Ranger freshman then raced to a 1:07.38 in winning the 100 fly as junior Lauren Szabo in 1:10.87 and Dreistadt in 1:14.39 gave Lakewood a 1-2-3 finish.

The other Lakewood first went to Lawrence, who won the 100 back with a 1:10.07.

Lakewood's girls swept the relays. Lawrence, Schleckman, Dreistadt and Ocejo won the 200 medley relay in 2:05.18, Mahoney, Lawrence, Dreistadt and Neff won the 200 free relay in 1:50.35 and Neff, Ocejo, Mahoney and Buelow claimed the 400 free relay in 3:49.07.

On the boys side, the two individual swims claimed by the Rangers came from seniors Brian Brink and Kyle Meggas. Brink used a 52.15 in the 100 free to defeat Valley Forge's Charley Goldun, who had a 57.56. Roles were reversed in the 50 free where Goldun was first in 23.41 and Brink second in 23.68.

Meggas and Andrew Steingass of Valley Forge battled in both distance events with the two splitting. Meggas won the 200 free with a 1:57.70 with Steingass second in 2:00.11. The 500 free went to Steingass in 5:25.50 with Meggas second in 5:27.17. The two met in the NOC championships two weeks earlier with Meggas edging Steingass in both events for Lake Division titles at Cleveland State.

The Lakewood boys also got a win in diving with a 1-2-3 finish led by Mike Pearlman with 229.35 points followed by Jim McMahan (176.60) and John Liber (130.65).

The Rangers won the 200 free relay in 1:43.05 using freshman Omar El-Ebrashy, Meggas, junior Chris Williams and Brink.

A long-standing tradition at Lakewood High School continued on Senior Night where any members of the team who are foreign exchange students have their national anthem played during ceremonies for the graduating seniors.

This year, the crowd heard the national anthem of Argentina, honoring senior Abel Venerdini, who sported the flag of Argentina while standing on the blocks during the playing of the anthem.

The list of Lakewood seniors is dominated on the girls side with nine that include Buelow, Dreistadt, Hartsel, Ocejo, Schleckman, Lisa Kowalski, Missy Richardson, Emmalee Rinehart and Mikaela Tardivo.

The Ranger senior boys besides Brink, Meggas and Venerdini include Ernie Boland and Luke Fesko.