On a day when he set two individual meet records and was part of two winning relay teams, Columbus High senior J.D. Rousseau wanted to talk about what a great day it was for his teammates during the ninth annual Columbus City Championship Swim Meet on Thursday.
“This is such a fun event, and just to see everyone, especially everyone from Columbus swim so well, is great,” Rousseau said, still breathing heavily after winning the 500-yard freestyle in a meet-record 5:07.15. “This has been a really fun day.”
It was an especially fun day for Columbus, with the girls winning the meet for the ninth consecutive year and the boys winning for the fourth time in a row and the sixth time overall.
“Overall, we did really well,” first-year Columbus coach Karen Waters said after the event. “We had another relay team make state, and we had one just miss. But we had a lot of fun, and it’s always fun to swim in this event.”
Northside finished second in boys and girls. Hardaway was third in boys and girls, and Shaw finished fourth in boys and girls. Hardaway’s Mitchell Graham broke the grip by Columbus and Northside as he won the 100-yard breastroke, the only event not won by a Columbus or Northside swimmer.
The Columbus girls won nine of 11 events, with senior Megan Cass, the 2011 Ledger-Enquirer All-Bi-City Girls Swimmer of the Year, leading the way with two individual firsts and two firsts as part of relay teams.
“This event is really fun because you know pretty much everyone here because it’s in Columbus,” Cass said. “It’s kind of funny because, in normal meets, you kind of say to yourself that ‘I want to beat that person’ or ‘I want to beat this person.’ But here, you don’t really care because we all know each other and we’re all friends. It’s just a different feeling here.”
Columbus freshman Lauren Crane also had a big day with an individual victory in the 200-yard freestyle and two victories as part of relay teams. She also finished second, by less than half a second, in the 100-yard butterfly.
The winner of that race, Northside freshman Emily Neville, also won the 200-yard individual medley for the Patriots.
“She’s got a great future in front of her,” Northside coach Katherine Moultrie said. “She won both tight races, which shows something about her.”
Another highlight for Northside was in the boys 200-yard individual medley, where sophomore Kevin Savabi won and senior Adam Wilder finished second. Savabi also won the boys 100-yard backstroke.
“We could not be happier for Kevin and Adam,” Moultrie said. “They really came through today and supported other.”
Another meet record was set by Columbus’ 200 freestyle relay team of Jorge Orderique, Payden Evans, Walton Bray and Charlie Flowers.
But as the water calmed on the pool inside the D.A. Turner YMCA, it was a day that belonged to Columbus’ Rousseau, who shaved more than five seconds off the meet’s 500-yard freestyle record.
“It’s incredible. It’s my best time, so I’m pretty happy,” he said. “I wanted to go under five (minutes). That didn’t happen, but I can’t complain. I had a lot of fun with my friends today. “
His coach couldn’t complain about him either.
“J.D. swims for the Hurricanes, but he comes at least once a week to our practice,” Waters said. “He has been a supporter of every kid. He has broken almost every single school record. He has made state in almost every single event. He’s just an incredible kid and an incredible swimmer.”
Thursday at D.A. Turner YMCA
Team scores
Girls
Columbus 176, Northside 127, Hardaway 35, Shaw 21
Boys
Columbus 178, Northside 106, Hardaway 57, Shaw 21
Individual champions
Girls
200 medley relay – Columbus (Jennifer Landry, Megan Cass, Lauren Crane, Ally Monfort) 2:10.87; 200 freestyle – Lauren Crane, Columbus, 2:28.06; 200 IM -- Emily Neville, Northside, 2:36.89; 50 freestyle – Megan Cass, Columbus, 27.31; 100 butterfly – Emily Neville, Northside, 1:14.58; 100 freestyle – Jessica Smith, Columbus, 1:06.77; 500 freestyle – Jennifer Landry, Columbus, 6:34.21; 200 freestyle relay – Columbus (Ally Monfort, Jessica Smith, Lauren Crane, Megan Cass) 1:56.10; 100 backstroke – Megan Cass, Columbus, 1:09.67; 100 breaststroke – Ally Monfort, Columbus, 1:29.09; 400 freestyle relay – Columbus (Jessica Smith, Abby Leroy, Ann Johnson, Jennifer Landry) 4:41.14
Boys
200 medley relay – Columbus (Walton Bray, J.D. Rousseau, Ben Fuller, Charlie Flowers) 1:51.84; 200 freestyle – J.D. Rousseau, Columbus, 1:53.88; 200 IM – Kevin Savabi, Northside, 2:21.07; 50 freestyle – Charlie Flowers, Columbus, 24.26; 100 butterfly – Ben Fuller, Columbus, 58.43; 100 freestyle – Jorge Orderique, Columbus, 56.97; 500 freestyle – J.D. Rousseau, Columbus, 5:07.15; 200 freestyle relay – Columbus (Jorge Orderique, Payden Evans, Walton Bray, Charlie Flowers) 1:40.36; 100 backstroke – Kevin Savabi, Northside, 1:03.91; 100 breasstroke – Mitchell Graham, Hardaway, 1:15.10; 400 freestyle relay – Columbus (Jorge Orderique, Marvin Lewis, Ben Fuller, J.D. Rousseau) 3:43.72.
