Girls Swimming & Diving

Published in The Chagrin Valley Times
January 9, 2020
Tony Lange

Kenston was headlined by its divers during the Western Reserve Conference championship on Friday at Mayfield and Saturday at the Spire Institute in Geneva.

During the girls 1-meter springboard competition at Mayfield, Lady Bomber senior Mary O’Neill recorded an 11-dive score of 461.8 points to become a four-time WRC champion, while junior teammate Courtney Keane took second with 351.1 points.

O’Neill’s performance ranks first among Division II divers in Ohio so far this season.

In the boys competition, Kenston sophomore Clay Foster also won gold on the 1-meter springboard with 380.05 points, while fellow Bomber sophomores Alex Bayus, 364.65, and Joe Drsek, 211.75, finished second and fifth to score a combined 51 points for their team in that event.

Since Kenston rejoined the WRC in 2015, it was the first time the Bombers cleaned up with first and second place in both the boys and girls diving competitions.

During the swimming portion of the meet the following day at the Spire Institute, top performances by junior Leilah Shafer and freshman Madison Jones helped propel the Lady Bombers to a runner-up team finish with 351 1/2 points, bested only by defending champion Chardon, 521 points, in the eight-team league meet.

Shafer finished runner-up in the 50-yard freestyle in 24.45 seconds, breaking Kayla Korenowski’s program mark of 24.66 seconds from 2015. Also, Shafer finished fourth in the 100 freestyle in 56.12 seconds.

Jones, meanwhile, finished runner-up in the 100 breaststroke in 1:13.98, bested only by Madison senior Zoey Fedele’s performance in 1:10.64.

Also leading the Lady Bombers, senior Mandy Glime took third in the 200 individual medley in 2:27.33, while freshman teammates Cayla DiBernardo was fourth in 2:28.69.

A third Kenston freshman churning up the wave was Molly Bochenek, who finished fifth in the 200 freestyle in 2:07.74 and sixth in the 100 backstroke in 1:06.28.

And Kenston senior Ellie Mills took sixth in the 100 butterfly in 1:07.49.

The Kenston girls’ best relay finish came in the 200 freestyle, when the quartet of junior Emily Evans, 27.32 seconds, Bochenek, 26.21 seconds, DiBernardo, 27.59 seconds, and Shafer, 25.52 seconds, clocked a 1:46.64 to finish third.

The Kenston boys, meanwhile, were led by sophomore Nick Korenowski and senior Tyler Adams to finish fifth in the team standings with 224 points.

In the 100 butterfly, Korenowski finished runner-up in 1:02.48, while Adams was third in 1:02.73.

In the 200 individual medley, Adams took fourth in 2:25.92.

And in the 200 freestyle, Korenowski finished sixth in 2:07.24.