Sports Editor
Just two weeks out from the beginning of the postseason, swimmers and divers from Milford and Glen Este had their last big meet of the regular season at the Eastern Cincinnati Conference Tournament.
The ECC’s seven teams descended upon Anderson High School’s natatorium. Turpin High School earned conference championships on both the girls and boys sides. Kings, Walnut Hills, Loveland, Anderson, Milford and Glen Este rounded out the girls standings. Walnut Hills finished second on the boys side with Anderson, Milford, Kings, Loveland and Glen Este following.
The diving competition took place on Thursday, Jan. 21 at Milford with Eagles sophomore Joel Adams taking home top honors over Anderson’s Kent Johnson by 0.10, 196.05 to 195.95. Adams’ teammate, Austin Slater, finished 10th.
For the girls, it was Glen Este’s Bethany Berger who was just short of taking home the title of league champion. The Lady Trojans junior finished less than four points behind league champion Rory Blankenship of Turpin. Milford’s Katherine Perez finished in 10th.
Over the weekend, the swimmers took center stage. Milford freshman Tyler Babinec continued his march towards Canton’s state championships with a pair of sprinting victories.
Babinec dominated the boys 50 freestyle, winning by more than a second over Anderson’s Patrick Johnson. Babinec swam a 22.36 in the finals. He also took home top billing in the 100 breaststroke, out-touching Anderson’s Nicholas Haller, 1:01.38 to 1:01.94.
The freshman, along with Sam Leatherwood, Tyler Karan and Chase Fisher, notched a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay.
Teamming up with Fisher, Jan Rae Chavez and Jarod Higgins, Babinec added another third-place finish to his tally in the 400 freestyle relay.
Milford’s Higgins finished in third place in the both the 100 and 200 freestyle, rounding out all local swimmers who were podium finishers.
Aside from Berger on the 1-meter board, Glen Este’s best finisher was Portia Blackert. She finished in ninth place in the 500 freestyle and in 10th place in the 200 freestyle.
Milford’s regular season is complete and they will begin ramping up for next week’s sectional tournament while Glen Este has a busy final week of the season planned.
The Aqua Trojans competed at New Richmond and Norwood on Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 26 and 27, respectively, and they will round out their regular season with a meet against Moeller on Friday, Jan. 29.
The sectional schedule for both ECC schools includes boys diving at Miami University on Tuesday, Feb. 9.
The girls will dive the following day, Feb. 10.
Swimmers will compete on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12 and 13.
Each sectional site will have two automatic qualifiers for the boys individual swimming events. The next 24 best times will advance to districts as well.
For boys relays, there will again be two automatic qualifiers from each sectional site as well as the 16 next best times advancing.
The girls will have two automatic qualifiers and the next 22 best times in individual events. Their relays will take two automatic qualifiers and 14 at large qualifiers.
The divers will have two automatic qualifiers from the each sectional site as well as the next 18 at large divers based on score across all sites to total 24 divers advancing to the district meet.
More information can be found on swdab.org.