Eastwood’s Nathan Decker and Perrysburg’s Karissa Gordon are making final preparations for the state swim
meet in Canton this week.
Decker competes in Division II. Gordon competes in Division I. Both are juniors.
Decker advanced by winning the district title in the 500 freestyle in 4:50.74 and finishing fourth in the
100 butterfly. Gordon finished second in the Division I 100 butterfly in 57.45 and earned an at-large
bid by posting one of the top 11 times state-wide.
The Division II preliminaries are Thursday with the finals Friday. The Division I preliminaries are
Friday with the finals Saturday.
Decker will be making a repeat trip to the state meet after finishing 15th in the 500 freestyle last year
in 4:59.44.
"It’s something that we have worked for all year … that was our goal," Eastwood head coach
Carolyn Strunk said about Decker advancing to the state meet.
"The way he swam it (at the district) was to control the first 100 and not panic and just make sure
he felt in control of himself," Strunk continued. "He was able to accelerate and get faster as
the race went along."
Decker is seeded 13th in the 500 freestyle and 21st in the 100 butterfly.
After failing to advance last season, Gordon made the cut this year and is seeded 11th in the 100
butterfly.
"Last year, she was 25th amongst the times in the state and this year she’s 11th amongst all the
times in the state," said Perrysburg swim coach Chris Black. "It was very nice that she was
able to qualify. She worked very hard for it. We thought she had the potential to do it."
Black said Gordon’s strong point in the event is her really good speed in the first 50.
"She is able to get out quickly," Black said. "Also, she’s a racer. She likes to race and
compete. She tries to get her hands to the wall first, just like everybody else."
Black said the first goal in Canton is to make the top 16 to advance to the finals, and then to swim a
mistake-free race.
"At that level, the swimmers that make the fewest mistakes are the ones that usually make
finals," Black said. "If she doesn’t make any major mistakes she has as good a shot as anybody
to make the top 16."
A story on Lake diver Samantha TenEyck, who competes in Canton today, was in Tuesday’s Sentinel-Tribune.
