OHSAA state swim meet once featured Will Rose, Hunter Armstrong
Editor’s note: The OHSAA state swimming Division I prelims and Division II finals were completed past our deadline. Visit CantonRep.com for coverage.
CANTON — Bursting at the seams with swimmers, Ohio split its state high school championship meet in two.
The OHSAA went from one big meet to a Division I and a Division II, first for girls in 2000, then for boys in 2011.
The meet for smaller schools has produced some of the bigger fish.
In the 100-yard backstroke at the 2017 Division II state meet, for example, Dover’s Hunter Armstrong, then new to the sport, came in eighth place.
In the 50- and 100-yard freestyle at the 2017 state meet, New Philadelphia’s Sem Andreis and Alliance’s Will Rose went one-two in both races.
In the 100-yard freestyle at the 2018 Division II championships, Rose edged Middletown Fenwick’s Adam Chaney in prelims, but Chaney nipped Rose in finals. In 2019, Rose won a pair of Division II state titles as a junior. He won two more as a senior.
They’ve grown.
Chaney recently broke a Florida Gators school backstroke record that had belonged to 12-time Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte.
Armstrong, who won a gold medal at the 2021 Olympic Games, joined Andreis on Wednesday on an Ohio State medley relay that set a Big Ten record. Reporting from the Big Ten Championships, swimmingworldmagazine.com raved, “Right out of the gate, the Buckeyes were all gas, no brakes.”
Rose is accelerating through his sophomore year at NCAA powerhouse Arizona State.
Rose retains the strongest connection to the Ohio state meet, which got rolling in earnest Thursday with Division II preliminaries.
He was driving away from a morning practice, 2,000 miles away, when The Canton Repository caught up with him by phone. Yes, he said, he’s excited for the Marlington and Alliance swimmers who are making a splash in Canton.
He thought back to the first of his four state meets, the one in which Andreis, then an exchange student at New Philadelphia, beat him out of a state championship in two sprints in C.T. Branin Natatorium.
“Branin has that arena atmosphere,” Rose said. “It’s very intimidating. I was a scared freshman. I was seriously scared.
“It’s an atmosphere like no other. It’s really cool that our home pool has that.”
Rose built a name everyone in the swim world remembers. He likes to remember Michael Shields, Ryan McKnight, Tommy Gress and Patrick Burse getting to a Division II state meet with him, on relays.
“It’s a very special feeling when someone first qualifies for a state meet,” he said. “It represents the very good goals people have in high school. Not everybody wants to continue their swimming careers in college.”
Rose considers Branin Natatorium a home pool because he spent years there on the Canton City School (CCS) club team. Marlington, which aims to improve on last year’s 10th-place finish in the Division II girls standings, is very familiar to him.
“Baila Bugara and I swam together forever,” he said. “Baila’s dad was my coach. I knew the Cox sisters, Claire and Caitlyn, from Alliance and Marlington and CCS. When I was home over the summer I got to know Leah Guess, who has a good future ahead of her.
“I’m super proud of how Jake Rehfus has done in his first year as the Marlington coach. Jake and I have been friends for 11 years now.
“It’s exciting to see them succeeding.”
Bugara, incidentally, works at Rose’s Hillcrest Market, operated on Alliance’s main drag by Will’s mother. It is known for its meats, bakery and catering service.
Will is not as well known at Arizona State as he was in Alliance.
“I had a nice reality check as I came to college,” he said. “I’m just trying to enjoy the sport more, embrace being part of the team. Not that I didn’t in high school, but it’s not a secret that a top 10 team in college is a little bit different than high school swimming.
“So, embrace that. Do my small part with the team. We have some stud swimmers, some freaks, some seriously different people. So, support them. Do my job, which is every day show up to practice with a good attitude and be the best team player I can be … and push those guys. One day if they’re not swimming too well, I might beat them, and that’ll wake them up.
“It’s never fun to wake up at 5:15 to go train, but it really is a treat to be part of this team.”
He keeps an eye on Ohio State, whose top star, Armstrong, was his CCS teammate.
“It was surreal to see him go through the Olympic Trials. It’s interesting to see him embrace his role now, as an Olympic gold medalist.” Rose said. “I’m very proud of him. It haven’t seen him for a while. That doesn’t mean I’m not rooting for him.”
Reach Steve at [email protected]
On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP
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