In a fitting tribute to a former Sandusky assistant swim coach, the hosts swept the A-Behr Blue Streak Classic XI Saturday at Sandusky.
It was the boys' second A-Behr win in row, and the girls' fifth consecutive victory.
The Blue Streaks boys finished with 319 points to edge runners-up Huron (222) and third-place Margaretta (200), while the Sandusky girls compiled 334 points, while Huron finished second with 216 and Margaretta was third with 198.
"I got so many compliments on how the meet was run — and I know our athletic director takes great pride in that and when other schools are noticing how well things are going — that's almost as good as the outcome of the meet itself," Sandusky coach Tommy Patterson said. "The kids came and enjoyed themselves, had good times, the coaches were happy, so it's a big success and I know Al would've been proud to have this going on as it is, and where it was from the first time all the way to where it is now. We had some fast swimming today and that's good."
Jack Stauffer led the Sandusky boys, with two individual firsts — including a meet record — and one relay first, and a second-place relay finish.
Stauffer finished first in the 200 IM with a time of 2 minutes, 10.32 seconds, to top the A-Behr record set by Mansfield Madison's Franz Konczak (2:10.95) in 2005.
"My event I was focusing on was the 200 IM — trying to get that A-Behr record," Stauffer said. "My dad motivated me by saying if I didn't get it, he was going to leave, so I had to get it."
Stauffer also finished first in the 100 backstroke, with a time of 59.99.
"I was pretty happy breaking a minute in the backstroke," he said. " I was just trying to focus on me today and not worry about anyone else."
Stauffer teamed up with Jason White, Dru Craig and Jake Riedy to finish first in the 200 medley relay (1:53.18) and finished second in the 400 freestyle relay (3:42.17) with White, David Linden and Jeremy White.
"Tommy (Patterson) got the team going by saying Huron was going to show up and try to win," Stauffer said. "It's our meet so we decided to get it done. It's been awesome. It really hasn't hit me that this is my last year swimming because I've been swimming my whole life. When it does, it's going to be very emotional, but it's been awesome so far. The kids are getting along and it's been a good year."
Stauffer added that his goal this season was to break his father's record in the 200 IM.
"I'm just trying to get my dad's 200 IM record —1:57.1 —it's my goal, it's been my goal since freshman year," he said. "I got really close last year and this year I'm hopefully gonna knock it off."
Jeremy White added a first-place finish for the Blue Streaks in the 100 butterfly (1:01.11) and a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle (1:59.93), while Jason White finished second in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.83), followed by Riedy in third (1:10.45).
Linden finished third for the Blue Streaks in the 100 freestyle (55.56), and teamed up with Riedy, Craig and Jeremy White for a third-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay (1:41.77).
"We just looked for the kids to swim the best meet that they've had this year and they just keep getting better and that's what happened," Patterson said. "They had a little more rest between events so a lot of them had a little better time drops for some of the individual events. Some of the kids swam some different events today, just to find out where we were. As a whole, we got up and raced. They like this meet, they're proud to swim here and they don't like losing in their own pool, so they stepped up."
Taylor and Kerrigan Vargo led the Blue Streak girls each with a pair of individual firsts and a pair of relay firsts.
"Today went really well," Taylor said. "I was excited with my times -- especially since I wasn't this fast in the season the past few years so I was pretty happy how I did.
"The team is great this year," she added. "They all have been working really hard. Almost everyone swam best times, if not close to best times, and they were all pretty excited which was very good.
Taylor's individual firsts both broke her own A-Behr meet records, as she finished first in the 200 freestyle in 2:00.08 to beat her 2010 time (2:01.18), and took first in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.30), to beat her 2009 meet record (1:10.02).
Taylor and Kerrigan teamed up with Melanie Murray and Kathryn Smith to win the 400 freestyle relay (4:05.77) and finished first in the 200 freestyle relay (1:46.83) with Murray and Ashley Ahlers.
Kerrigan finished first in the 100 freestyle (56.09) to top Margaretta's Sydney Craig's A-Behr record of 57:01, set in 2008, and also finished first in the 200 IM (2:20.10), as the Blue Streaks finished 1-2-3 in the event.
Smith finished second with 2:32.76, while Elisha Hofer was third (2:51.06).
The Blue Streak girls also finished 1-2-3 in the 500 freestyle, as Smith took first (6:01.97), Kelly Murray took second (6:06.37) and Sammy Smith was third (6:16.62).
Ahlers added a first in the 50 freestyle (25.92) and a second-place finish in the 100 freestyle (58.84). She also teamed up with Kathryn and Sammy Smith and Kelly Murray to finish first in the 200 medley relay (2:07.33).
Kelly Murray finished third in the 200 freestyle (2:16.95) for the Blue Streaks, while Sammy Smith was third in the 100 butterfly (1:11.42) and Melanie Murray was third in the 100 backstroke (1:14.02).
For more information, see Sunday's Sandusky Register.
