The Ohio LSC concluded its 18 & under winter championships meet over the weekend with some solid times out of Jessey Li, Martina Peroni, Carl Bloebaum and Avery Voss among others. The meet was held in two different sites across six days at Miami University in Oxford and at Powel Crosley, Jr. YMCA in Cincinnati.
Jessey Li of the Mason Manta Rays was the only representative from this meet to enter the national top eight leaderboard in USA Swimming’s 18 & under virtual championships held throughout the United States as she wound up eighth with a 1:00.85, and won the Ohio meet at 1:01.34. Li also finished fourth in the 200 breast (2:18.12) behind winner Ellie Andrews (2:14.28) and was third in the 200 IM (2:04.02) behind Andrews (2:03.79) and winner Martina Peroni (2:00.46).
Peroni, who has verbally committed to Duke, won four of the five events she raced in, including both butterfly events (54.60, 1:57.85) and both IM’s (4:14.48). On the national leaderboard, she finished as high as 11th in both the 200 butterfly and 400 IM as she will be at Duke in the fall of 2022.
Carly Meeting also was a dual winner on the women’s side with victories coming in the 200 free (1:50.54) and 200 back (2:01.41) as she won both races closely over Ella Piersma (1:50.63) and Abigail Woolford (2:01.64). Meeting also finished third in the 100 backstroke with a 55.67 behind winner Nyah Funderburke (54.14) and Riley Huddleston (55.48).
Huddleston also took a win in the 50 free at 23.38 and was second in the 100 free behind Hannah Hill at 51.13 to Hill’s 50.99.
Other winners on the women’s side came from Emily Brown in the 500 (5:01.02) and Ashley Lugbill in the 1650 (17:02.55).
On the men’s side, Avery Voss of Upper Arlington Swim Club won both the 50 and 100 free at 20.52 and 44.82 which put him 33rd and 29th respectively in the virtual 18 & under championships. Voss also finished second in the 200 free at 1:38.45 just behind Spencer Aurnou-Rhees (1:38.44).
Voss has committed to swim at Stanford in the fall of 2021, while Aurnou-Rhees will be at Tennessee.
Aurnou-Rhees also won the 200 IM at 1:48.62 (ranked 27th) and was second in the 400 IM to Zachary Ward (3:51.61) which put Ward 20th nationally in the virtual 18 & under championships.
In the 200 butterfly, uncommitted junior Carl Bloebaum won ahead of Ward at 1:47.43 as he was ranked 13th nationally already with a 1:46. Bloebaum also won the 100 butterfly at 47.58 and took second place in both the 100 and 200 backstroke behind 100 winner Scott Buff (48.22) and 200 winner Eli Stoll (1:47.53).
Other winners on the weekend came from Grant Gooding in the 100 breaststroke (55.26) and Mitchell List in the 200 (2:01.25), and Zachary Stump in the 500 (4:33.31) and John Burnard in the 1650 (16:06.34).