The DARTS continued their dominance over Greater Columbus Swim League competition Tuesday in Gahanna, adding to their dynasty with an eighth straight GCSL overall team championship.
“It’s a rewarding finish to the 2017 season to say the least,” coach Bill Rietz said. “Our focus each year is to develop our depth to hold off challengers to the overall team champion trophy. With eight straight, our athletes know what it takes to be prepared for the GCSL Championships.”
Cassie Klumpp and the girls 18U 200 freestyle relay team punctuated the Stingrays’ list of 24 event winners with GCSL records.
The 18U free relay team — Kristen Puthoff, Valerie Keller, Grace Horstman and Brooke Glesenkamp — broke the 2015 record by 1.53 seconds. Klumpp, meanwhile, won the girls 12U 50 breaststroke in 33.87 seconds, breaking a record that stood since 2010 by .34.
“It’s exciting to see two events now have DARTS athletes attached to GCSL records,” Rietz said. “Looking back at the results, so many season-best times and scores were attained. A tribute to the willingness to step up and perform when a team goal is the challenge facing the athlete. It’s truly a team accomplishment worth the time and effort.”
The Juniors finished second in the diving event and first in the swimming championships, closing with respective point totals of 112 and 1,234. The Seniors finished third in Friday and Saturday’s diving portion of the season-ending meet with 109 points before winning Monday and Tuesday’s swimming championships with 1,926 points.
The squad with the most points between the Juniors and Seniors is named the overall team champion. The DARTS finished with 3,381 to beat out runner-up Plain Township for the title by nearly 500 points. Highlands Park finished third with 2,083, Worthington closed fourth with 1,801, Westerville JC finished fifth with 1,731, Northwest ended up sixth with 1,514 points and Gahanna smoothed out the scoring summary with 1,188.
The Stingrays won 24 of the 82 events and had at least one GCSL champion in each of the eight event types (diving, medley relay, IM, backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, freestyle and freestyle relay).
Other top record-setting showings belonged to the girls 10U 100 medley quartet (Caitlynn Rousher, Kara Glesenkamp, Natalie Fiant and Mia Saksa) and the girls 18U 200 medley foursome (Horstman, Puthoff, Brooke Glesenkamp and Kauren Ertz). Both won their events while setting new team records.
