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Smiling Suburban League champions from Revere are (from left) Maggie Harris, Kayla Shockey, Emma Gresser and Alex Poitinger. The Minutemen scored major points in the 400-yard free relay to snare the overall title.

WOOSTER, Ohio – It will go down as one of the wildest, craziest, closest finishes since the Suburban League first sponsored a swimming championship.

The Revere girls, with a roster of 12 and a SL dual meet record of 4-2, surprised everyone in winning the 2012 overall league title on Friday night at Wooster High School.

Minutemen coach Steve Marshall saved his best for the last event – the 400-yard freestyle relay. He entered two strong teams and the decision proved to be a winner as Revere (279 points) used a 1-4 finish to overcome Green (271) and Copley (253) in the final standings.

Marshall’s two relay teams outscored Green’s two teams 54-36 and that proved to be the winning margin. It also delivered the overall championship, after the Minutemen had placed fourth in the dual-meet standings.

Nordonia (242) finished a strong fourth in the overall ranking, making for a thrilling ending to the meet.

“We won! We still have leg hair, and we’re not even rested or tapered,” shouted giddy Revere junior Emma Gresser. “I am so happy!”

All-Ohioans Gresser, Alex Poitinger and Maggie Harris performed as expected and the Minutemen got a big lift from seniors Sarah Courtad and Kayla Shockey, juniors Sami House and Erin Peiffer and freshman Alexandria Shockey.

“We didn’t think we were going to be able to pull it off,” Harris said.

Girls champion a year ago, Green placed second in the final standings, while Copley was third.

“I thought it would be close, but I didn’t think it would be that close,” Marshall said. “It came down to the last relay.

“I kind of stacked the two end relays, just knowing that in the 200 free (relay) we didn’t score that many points because we kind of went for it with both 400 relays. That was a big help for our B relay to get fourth.”

Copley coach Ed Burnsed was disappointed for his girls, but optimistic about the future.

“You lose close meets sometimes,” Burnsed sighed. “It teaches kids sometimes you have to lose before you can win.  They put their all into this season and I’m real proud of them.”

The Indians had eight freshmen among their 14 swimmers and just one senior.

Burnsed believes the addition of Nordonia is a huge boost for the swimming championship.

Poitinger was a double winner for the Minutemen in the 200 free (1:59.89) and the 500 free (5:29.37). Copley freshman Madison Myers won the 50 free (24.76) and the 100 free (54.16).

Cloverleaf senior and Ohio University recruit Addy Ferguson captured the 100 butterfly (59.14) and the 100 backstroke (58.70). She completed her SL career a four-time champion in both events, never having lost to a league opponent in four years.

For as close as the girls meet was the boys meet was Copley in charge from beginning to end. The Indians were 6-0 in SL dual meets and then capped off a repeat championship by dominating the league meet.

Copley’s point total (326) far outdistanced second-place Nordonia (256.50) and third-place Wadsworth (237.50).

“We had really good senior leadership with Henry Signore and Chris Lane,” Burnsed said. “We had some good young swimmers step up. I had some huge improvements from our younger kids and we were just pretty solid all year.”

Signore won the 200 freestyle (1:50.12) and placed second in the 100 free. Junior Kory Braman won the 500 free (5:04.56) and junior Cooper Comstock won the 100 backstroke (57.41). The Indians won both the 200 and 400 free relay events.

Wadsworth senior Mike Pavlak set meet records in winning the 200 IM (2:02.77) and the 100 breaststroke (1:02.51).

Revere junior Jon Davis won the 50 free (22.86) and the 100 free (50.55).

Suburban League Swimming Championships

Girls results

200 medley relay: 1. Revere (Poitinger, A. Shockey, Gresser, Harris), 1:56.61. 2. Copley, 1:58.50. 3. Nordonia, 2:00.74. 4. Green, 2:00.93. 5. Cloverleaf, 2:04.07.

200 freestyle: 1. Poitinger (Rev), 1:59.89. 2. Prifti (Cop), 2:01.25. 3. Kussow (Gre), 2:10.57. 4. Klions (Cop), 2:10.81. 5. Grell (Nord), 2:12.04.

200 IM: 1. Gresser (Rev), 2:51.71. 2. Hickman (Gre), 2:18.77. 3. Toaz (Nord), 2:28.16. 4. Round (Cop), 2:30.29. 5. Rodriguez (Cop), 2:33.34.

50 freestyle: 1. Myers (Cop), 24.76. 2. Harris (Rev), 25.15. 3. Surratt (Wads) 25.52. 4. Wlosowicz (Nord), 26.25. 5. House (Cop), 26.66.

100 butterfly: 1. Ferguson (Clov), 59.14. 2. Prifti (Cop), 1:00.99. 3. Gresser (Rev), 1:02.19. 4. Dasher (Nord), 1:04.15. 5. K. Shockey (Rev), 1:05.08.

100 freestyle: 1. Myers (Cop), 54.16. 2. Harris (Rev), 55.22. 3. Surratt (Wads), 56.77. 4. Wlosowicz (Nord), 58.05. 5. Herbert (Gre), 58.84.

500 freestyle: 1. Poitinger (Rev), 5:29.37. 2. Toaz (Nord), 5:46.47. 3. Peiffer (Rev), 5:47.53. 4. Klions (Cop), 5:48.58. 5. Grell (Nord), 5:51.55.

200 freestyle relay: 1. Copley (Round, Prifti, Rodriguez, Myers), 1:45.05. 2. Wadsworth, 1:48.77. 3. Revere, 1:51.15. 4. Green, 1:53.29. 5. Nordonia, 1:54.20.

100 backstroke: 1. Ferguson (Clov), 58.70. 2. Hickman (Gre), 1:04.47. 3. Dasher (Nord), 1:05.99. 4. Douglas (Gre), 1:07.51. 5. K. Shockey (Rev), 1:08.15.

100 breaststroke: 1. Herbert (Gre), 1:12.64. 2. DiFiore (Tall), 1:14.73. 3. Deevers (Gre), 1:15.80. 4. A. Shockey (Rev), 1:15.85. 5. Merrill (Gre), 1:16.17.

400 freestyle relay: 1. Revere (Harris, House, Gresser, Poitinger), 3:49.22. 2. Green, 3:54.28. 3. Nordonia, 3:55.62. 4. Revere, 4:09.44. 5. Copley, 4:13.94.

Boys results

200 medley relay: 1. Wadsworth (Easterling, Pavlak, Sayre, LaHue), 1:45.90. 2. Nordonia, 1:49.95. 3. Copley, 1:54.94. 4. Green, 1:56.53. 5. Wadsworth, 1:57.46.

200 freestyle: 1. Signore (Cop), 1:50.12. 2. Goodreau (Clov), 1:53.79. 3. Angeletti (Gre), 1:57.29. 4. Grell (Nord), 1:59.00. 5. Mullaly (Rev), 1:59.07.

200 IM: 1. Pavlak (Wads), 2:02.77. 2. Lane (Cop), 2:07.55. 3. Canode (Cop), 2:11.63. 4. Mierzejewski (Rev), 2:16.86. 5. Anthony (Gre), 2:18.32.

50 freestyle: 1. Davis (Rev), 22.86. 2. Long (Nord), 23.72. 3. Braman (Cop), 23.83. 4. LaHue (Wads), 24.00. 5. Peterson (Nord), 24.09.

100 butterfly: 1. Goodreau (Clov), 57.27. 2. Zuercher (Nord), 57.41. 3. Sayre (Wads), 58.46. 4. Canode (Cop), 1:00.45. 5. Rinehardt (Nord), 1:01.56.

100 freestyle: 1. Davis (Rev), 50.55. 2. Signore (Cop), 50.59. 3. LaHue (Wads), 53.09. 4. Riedel (Nord), 53.12. 5. Peterson (Nord), 53.94.

500 freestyle: 1. Braman (Cop), 5:04.56. 2. Comstock (Cop), 5:09.71. 3. Zuercher (Nord), 5:10.75. 4. Mullaly (Rev), 5:20.52. 5. Angeletti (Gre), 5:21.93.

200 freestyle: 1. Copley (Lane, Canode, Bloch, Braman), 1:34.02. 2. Wadsworth, 1:34.16. 3. Nordonia, 1:34.32. 4. Revere, 1:38.97. 5. Green, 1:41.38.

100 backstroke: 1. Comstock (Cop), 57.41. 2. Bloch (Cop), 1:00.42. 3. Sayre (Wads), 1:03.10. 4. Rinehardt (Nord), 1:03.66. 5. Collins (Gre), 1:04.63.

100 breaststroke: 1. Pavlak (Wads), 1:02.51. 2. Lane (Cop), 1:02.83. 3. Mierzejewski (Rev), 1:09.22. 4. Heard (Cop), 1:09.86. 5. Grell (Nord), 1:10.24..

400 freestyle relay: 1. Copley (Signore, Canode, Bloch, Comstock), 3:28.27. 2. Nordonia, 3:31.87. 3. Revere, 3:40.28. 4. Green, 3:43.56. 5. Copley, 3:51.06.

(Earlier in the week, SportsInk.com indicated that 16 swimmers score in each event at the SL Championships. Actually, only 12 score. We apologize for the error.)