MANSFIELD — The celebration was abbreviated, but Wilson Cannon and his Lexington teammates plan to keep the good times rolling for a few more weeks.
Cannon won a pair of individual events and was a member of two record-setting relay teams as the Minutemen dominated at the Division II sectional swim meet at Malabar’s Frank Bartholow Natatorium.
The boys and girls swim teams were to be recognized for winning Ohio Cardinal Conference titles before the Lex basketball game against Ottawa-Glandorf on Saturday evening. The sectional swim meet didn’t end until after 5 p.m., meaning Cannon and Co. barely had time to exchange high fives before boarding the bus back to the high school.
“It feels amazing to break two pool records,” said Cannon, who swam legs on the record-setting 200 yard medley relay and 400 yard freestyle relay teams. “None of us are really tapered so this is a little bit of surprise.”
Cannon teamed up with Cayman Eichler, Justice Holmes and Connor Miller in the 200 medley relay, the first event of the day. The quartet finished in 1 minutes, 42 seconds, breaking the pool record set by Lexington in 1999.
Cannon, Eichler, Miller and Matt Malaska put an exclamation on the afternoon by winning the final event of the meet, the 400 free relay, in 3:22.03. The previous record of 3:22.53, set by Wooster, had stood since 2005.
“We book-ended the meet with records in the medley relay and 400 free,” Lex coach Brock Spurling said. “The team that had the pool record in the medley relay also has our school record, so we are in pretty good company there.”
Cannon won individual titles in the 200 freestyle (1:50.18) and the 100 butterfly (53.94).
“I feel really good,” Cannon said. “We’ll be looking to drop a little more time once we taper.”
Ontario’s David Whitaker matched Cannon with a pair of individual victories. The junior won the 50 free in 22.71 seconds and took the 100 free in 50.41 seconds.
“I would have liked to gone a little faster in both events, but I’ll take it for sectionals,” Whitaker said. “We haven’t started to taper yet, so I think we’re going to drop some more time.”
Colonel Crawford’s Nic Motter won individual title in the 200 individual medley (2:07.78) and the 500 freestyle (5:09.36). Galion’s Caleb Strack won the 100 backstroke in 56.88 seconds.
Lexington’s 200 freestyle relay team of Malaska, Holmes, David Haring and Jerrod Kiser won in 1:34.12.
Like the Lexington boys, the Lex girls cruised to the sectional title.
Alli McFarland won both the 200 individual medley (2:16.61) and the 100 breaststroke (1:09.44), while Jordan Hayes won a pair of crowns in the 200 free (2:06.24) and 500 free (5:39.14). Other individual winners for Lady Lex were Olivia Newman in the 50 free (25.52) and Kelsi Brown in the 100 backstroke (1:02.00).
Lady Lex’s 400 free relay team of McFarland, Brown, Sage Moore and Tessa Gerhardt won in 3:50.30.
Colonel Crawford freshman Cassidy Vogt won the 100 freestyle in 56.75 seconds and was a member of two record-setting relay teams. Vogt joined with Kaisey Speck, Jillianne Gregg and Pierce Krassow to win the 200 medley relay in a pool-record 1:53.87. The same foursome won the 200 freestyle relay in a pool-record 1:42.44.
None of Saturday’s winners automatically qualified to next week’s district meet. District qualifiers are based on sectional times and will be revealed Sunday.
