State Swimming: Bellbrook’s Cody Bybee shatters 26-year-old Ohio record

Junior named swimmer of the meet after winning pair of events in record fashion

Miami Valley ruled the pool Friday in the Division II Ohio High School Swimming Championships.

Led by record-setting Bellbrook junior Cody Bybee and two-time repeat champ Eric Knowles of Xenia Legacy Christian, area swimmers won five of the eight individual events contested at C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton.

Bybee, the top-ranked junior in Ohio who remains uncommitted, blitzed the field in the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly events and shattered state records in the process.

Bybee’s winning time in the 200 free was 1 minute, 34.55 seconds, eclipsing the legendary mark three-time Olympian Joe Hudepohl set 26 years ago while at St. Xavier.

“Most incredible swim I’ve ever witnessed!” Bellbrook coach Rob Johnson said on Twitter.

Bybee also won the 100 fly in 46.97, breaking a 10-year-old state and pool record. He also won both events as a sophomore. Bybee was named swimmer of the meet Friday.

Bybee’s teammate John Sampson, also a junior, won the 100 backstroke in a school-record time of 49.93.

Knowles, a senior who will swim collegiately at North Carolina State, repeated in the 200 individual medley (1:49.61) and 500 free (4:24.57). Knowles is a club teammate of Bybee’s on the Dayton Raiders.

Waynesville freshman Owen Conley and Carroll junior Connor Blatt finished behind Knowles in the 200 IM to make it a 1-2-3 finish for the area.

Bybee and Sampson teamed with Cole Huggard and Henry Wong for a runner-up finish in the 200 medley relay and a third-place finish in the 400 free relay to help the Golden Eagles to a program-best fourth-place finish.

In the girls meet, Tippecanoe’s Arielle Arnett (second, 500 free), Greenville’s Isabelle Gable (third, 200 free) and Yellow Springs’ Olivia Chick (fourth, 100 back; fourth, 100 free) were the top area placers.

The Division I finals are set for 4 p.m. Saturday.

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