Columbus East’s Misha Machavariani swims the breaststroke portion of the 200-yard individual medley during a swimming meet against Columbus North Tuesday at Columbus North High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
Two years ago, the Columbus East girls swimmers broke a decades-long drought when they beat Columbus North in a dual meet, then the Olympians beat the Bull Frogs again last year.
Tuesday night, it was the East boys’ turn to snap a decades-long drought against North. The Olympian boys won 99-84, while the Bull Frog girls prevailed 105-78.
“It’s great,” East sophomore Misha Machavariani said. “We haven’t really had such a great opportunity for a long while. We have such a great team now, we have large depth and our swimmers are really working hard. We’re cooperating together. We’re more than just a team. We’re more of a family. I think that leads to better work in practice. I’m excited to where we can be at conference and sectional.”
East coach Doug Trueblood said if the Olympian boys have ever beaten North, it was before he entered high school in 1988.
“I can’t remember when we’ve been able to pull a boys meet out,” Trueblood said. “We had some guys out sick. They had some guys out. But it was a good meet. The North boys were ready to swim. Our guys were ready to swim. It was just a good competition.”
Machavariani won the 200-yard individual medley in 2 minutes, 4.96 seconds and the 100 butterfly in 54.65. Senior Brady Beyer also was a double-winner, taking the 200 freestyle (1:48.52) and 100 breaststroke (1:01.26).
“It was an exciting meet,” Beyer said. “We had pretty solid times. If it wasn’t our fastest times this year, it was right there, so I think everyone was happy with that. It’s exciting to beat North. No one on our side has experienced it, but I think for the most part, we’re pretty focused on the end of the year. We’re pretty focused on conference, sectional and hopefully, state.”
Other individual winners for the East boys were Gavin Day in the diving competition (202.35), Cavan Stilson in the 100 freestyle (51.01), Spencer Erfmeier in the 500 freestyle (5:32.04) and Judah Nickoll in the 100 backstroke (55.84). The Olympians also captured the 200 medley (1:42.07) and 400 freestyle (3:28.52) relays.
North’s Pratt Badve won the 50 freestyle (22.88). The Bull Frogs’ other victory came in the 200 freestyle relay (1:37.31).
“It’s really how we lined them up,” North coach Mike Cunningham said. “That’s how it worked out. If we would have put different people different places, it could have gone the other way. I think they have just as much depth as we do. They have a nice, strong team.”
Both boys teams were missing a couple of their top swimmers. East’s Todd Hundley was sick. North was without arguably its top two swimmers, Daniel Utterback and Jude Abdallah. Utterback, last year’s Republic Boys Swimmer of the Year, competed in a junior national meet last week, but hinted in a social media post over the weekend that he was finished with the sport of swimming.
On the girls side, meanwhile, the Bull Frogs avenged losses to the Olympians the past two years with their win on Tuesday.
“I’ve been sick the past couple of days, but I think I came back really hard and really strong,” North senior Karissa Bevis said. “All the training with the new coaches, we really deserved coming out here and racing hard and really putting our effort to win.”
Bevis won the 50 freestyle (26.67) and 100 freestyle (59.27). Freshman Ainsley Sherlock took the 200 IM (2:24.82) and 100 breaststroke (1:13.30).
“A couple meets ago, I didn’t feel as great, but during my 100 breast and the 200 IM, I felt great, and I pushed through, even though I was pretty tired,” Sherlock said.
North swept the 200 medley (2:03.32), 200 freestyle (1:50.45) and 400 freestyle (4:14.89) relays.
“I thought it was amazing,” Cunningham said. “They swam off the hook tonight. They stepped up, they went after it and didn’t back down, even when things didn’t go their way. It was awesome. We had a ton of best times, a ton of fast swims. I couldn’t have asked for a better race.”
Cassidy Furnish led the East girls with wins in the 200 freestyle (2:12.90) and 500 freestyle (5:43.67). Gabbie Meier took the diving (196.25), Claire Brooks captured the 100 butterfly (1:09.44) and Josie Havenaar won the 100 backstroke (1:08.61).
“The girls did a good job,” Trueblood said. “We knew coming in that we were probably about 15 to 20 points behind them, based of of the way the relays stacked up and some of the sprint events where they were just deeper than we are. But our girls came out and really raced. I’m really proud of the way the girls came out to compete because most of the girls that were able to get a win against North the last couple of years with (former girls coach) Jill (Arnholt) graduated.”
Boys
Columbus East 99, Columbus North 84
200 medley relay: 1. Columbus East (Judah Nickoll, Brady Beyer, Misha Machavariani, Cavan Stilson) 1:42.07; 2. Columbus North (HP Devaguptapu, Aarush Mahato, Deglan Cunningham, David Zhang) 1:56.79; 3. Columbus East (Ethan Hall, Jesse Isaacs, Eli Isaacs, Rylan Perkins) 1:58.81.
200 freestyle: 1. Beyer (CE) 1:48.52; 2. Nickoll (CE) 1:53.18; 3. Cole Ehara (CN) 1:57.85; 4. Spencer Erfmeier (CE) 2:01.99; 5. Mateo Gamez-Lamadrid (CN) 2:12.85.
200 individual medley: 1. Misha Machavariani (CE) 2:04.96; 2. Deglan Cunningham (CN) 2:12.70; 3. Mahato (CN) 2:17.65; 4. Hall (CE) 2:18.10; 5. Perkins (CE) 2:25.24.
50 freestyle: 1. Pratt Badve (CN) 22.88; 2. Stilson (CE) 22.91;3. Isaac Proffitt (CN) 23.05; 4. Keaton Stephenson (CE) 24.88; 5. Zhang (CN) 25.08.
Diving: 1. Gavin Day (CE) 202.35; 2. Robert Cantu (CN) 128.65; 3. Carson Shoop (CN) 101.50.
100 butterfly: 1. Machavariani (CE) 54.65; 2. Brock Smith (CN) 56.63; 3. Cunningham (CN) 59.66; 4. Perkins (CE) 59.68; 5. Mahato (CN) 1:00.58.
100 freestyle: 1. Stilson (CE) 51.01; 2. Proffitt (CN) 52.29; 3. Stephenson (CE) 52.98; 4. Maclain Clock (CN) 53.63; 5. Jasper Nickoll (CE) 56.51.
500 freestyle: 1. Erfmeier (CE) 5:32.04; 2. Gamez-Lamadrid (CN) 5:49.38; 3. J. Isaacs (CE) 5:55.23; 4. Arjun Bhadoria (CN) 6:17.43; 5. Devaguptapu (CN) 6:24.37.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Columbus North (Proffitt, Ehara, Clock, Mahato) 1:37.31; 2. Columbus East (Ja. Nickoll, Hall, Erfmeier, Stephenson) 1:44.34; 4. Columbus North (Zhang, Gabe Piper, Bhadoria, Gamez-Lamadrid) 1:49.27.
100 backstroke: 1. Ju. Nickoll (CE) 55.84; 2. Badve (CN) 57.03; 3. Clock (CN) 1:03.14; 4. Ja. Nickoll (CE) 1:09.85; 5. Piper (CN) 1:20.13.
100 breaststroke: 1. Beyer (CE) 1:01.26; 2. Ehara (CN) 1:04.89; 3. Smith (CN) 1:10.31; 4. Nicolas Bowers (CN) 1:14.17; 5. J. Isaacs (CE) 1:14.54.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Columbus East (Machavariani, Stilson, Ju. Nickoll, Beyer) 3:28.52; 2. Columbus North (Badve, Clock, Cunningham, Smith) 3:40.78.
Girls
Columbus North 105, Columbus East 78
200 medley relay: 1. Columbus North (Katie Frazier, Ainsley Sherlock, Brooklyn Pendleton, Karissa Bevis) 2:03.32; 2. Columbus East (Josie Havenaar, Ali Trueblood, Cassidy Furnish, Claire Brooks) 2:04.89; 3. Columbus North (Mattie Handlon, Cora Tregoning, Kanav Mahta, Nicole Brault) 2:18.26.
200 freestyle: 1. Furnish (CE) 2:12.90; 2. Frazier (CN) 2:15.82; 3. Brooks (CE) 2:17.30; 4. Mehta (CN) 2:26.33; 5. Grace Hale (CE) 2:26.74.
200 individual medley: 1. Sherlock (CN) 2:24.82; 2. Kira VanValkenburg (CE) 2:36.65; 3. Tregoning (CN) 2:40.66; 4. Trueblood (CE) 2:45.30; 5. Maddie Beyer (CE) 2:47.44.
50 freestyle: 1. Karissa Bevis (CN) 26.67; 2. Georgia Abdallah (CN) 28.23; 3. Kara Buntin (CN) 28.56; 4. Saya Hauser (CE) 28.73; 5. Nicole Fernandez (CE) 32.41.
Diving: 1. Gabbie Meier (CE) 196.25; 2. Ella Gray Partin (CN) 155.55;3. Lydia Putney (CN) 130.25; 4. Natalie Cross (CN) 108.60; 5. Sophie Krueger (CE) 91.35.
100 butterfly: 1. Brooks (CE) 1:09.44; 2. Pendleton (CN) 1:14.14; 3. Buntin (CN) 1:20.41.
100 freestyle: 1. Bevis (CN) 59.27; 2. Havenaar (CE) 1:00.16; 3. Abdallah (CN) 1:02.65; 4. VanValkenburg (CE) 1:02.81; 5. Hauser (CE) 1:04.96.
500 freestyle: 1. Furnish (CE) 5:53.67; 2. Frazier (CN) 6:14.34; 3. Hale (CE) 6:28.74; 4. Brault (CN) 6:35.71; 5. Max Andrews (CN) 6:41.57.
200 freestyle relay: 1. Columbus North (Abdallah, Sherlock, Pendleton, Bevis) 1:50.45; 2. Columbus East (Meier, Trueblood, VanValkenburg, Hale) 1:56.87; 3. Columbus North (Emma Glyn-Jones, Handlon, Brault, Buntin) 1:59.38.
100 backstroke: 1. Havenaar (CE) 1:08.61; 2. Mehta (CN) 1:14.66; 3. Hannah Dean (CE) 1:17.21; 4. Pendleton (CN) 1:17.51; 5. Oilvia Klinge (CE) 1:19.58.
100 breaststroke: 1. Sherlock (CN) 1:13.30; 2. Trueblood (CE) 1:21.66; 3. Tregoning (CN) 1:22.37; 4. Beyer (CE) 1:24.96; 5. Grace Lykins (CE) 1:46.25.
400 freestyle relay: 1. Columbus North (Abdallah, Tregoning, Bunton, Frazier) 4:14.89; 2. Colubmus East (VanValkenburg, Hale, Lykins, Hauser) 4:29.23; 3. Columbus North (Glyn-Jones, Mehta, Handlon, Andrews) 4:40.93.
