Centerville resolved to grab state title

Elks' relay team says second place not good enough this year.

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By Debbie Juniewicz, Contributing Writer 11:24 PM Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Centerville Elks relay team has all the motivation it needs heading into the state swim meet.

Centerville’s Josh Brooks, Jake Carlsen, Brian Clark and Sam Mitchell are the top-seeded team in the boys Division I 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:07.43, which is .68 seconds better than second-seeded Cincinnati St. Xavier.

Centerville, which has never won a boys state relay title, had to settle for second in the event last year to perennial state power Toledo St. Francis, but has no intention of settling this year.

“I think our entire relay team would be disappointed if we didn’t win,” Mitchell said.

No one would be more disappointed than Clark and Mitchell, who are both seniors.

“This is my fourth year at state and it’s a lot of fun and really exciting, but we really want to beat St. Francis,” Clark said.

While they’re all state veterans, this year brought a new strategy for this relay team. The Elks usually taper off for the district meet to ensure a state berth. This season, they held off until this week.

“I think that will help us a lot, because we won the district without being rested,” Clark said.

Rested is a relative term, as the state-bound swimmers will still put in two practices a day until they head to Canton with the rest of the Elks’ 19 state qualifiers, including three divers.

They will, however, reduce their yardage significantly this week, which, at its peak, was as much as 80,000 yards a week.

“They definitely love it when they get to taper down,” Centerville coach Brian Hein said. “But the nice thing about these guys is that they are very experienced. They’ve already put in all of the hard work.”

While this weekend marks the finale of Clark’s and Mitchell’s high school swimming careers, their time in the pool is far from over, as they will swim for Yale and Emory universities, respectively, in the fall. But, for now, it’s all about bringing home a state championship for the Elks.

“It’s the competition that gets you through all of the not-so-fun parts,” Clark said. “I don’t swim for the practice, I swim for the racing.”

Top times: The Elks are not the only top-seeded Miami Valley swimmers heading into the state meet, which gets underway Wednesday with Division II diving.

Beavercreek senior Jack Pohlmann has the top time (:56.00) in the boys D-I 100-yard breaststroke and the Beavers’ 200-yard medley relay team is also top-seeded at 1:33.31.

Among Division II boys, Oakwood’s Cliff Goertemiller, 200- and 500-yard freestyle, and Patrick Mulcare, 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard backstroke, are top seeds in their events, as is the Lumberjacks’ 200-yard medley relay team.

Botkins senior Logan Bauer is the top-seeded diver and Chip Samuelson of Springfield Catholic has the time to beat (:58.03) in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Centerville senior Morgan Mullins is the top-seeded D-I girls diver and Springfield Shawnee junior Kendra Crew is the No. 1 seed in the D-II 100-yard breaststroke.

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