Solon Swim Club to Host USA Summer Sectionals

The Solon Stars swim club was slated to host the prestigious USA Swimming Summer Speedo Championship Series Sectionals in 2012, but when Michigan could not hold the 2011 event, the Stars came to the rescue.

The Solon club, under the direction of Mike Davidson, will host the meet July 21-24 at the Cleveland State University natatorium. And it will be no small feat to run the event, which will draw between 550 and 700 swimmers from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Not to mention one swimmer who will be coming all the way from Mexico.

"Normally this is planned a year or a year and a half in advance," said Davidson, in his ninth year as head coach of the Stars. "We accepted the bid back in November. It's been a lot of work but I think we're going to knock it out of the park."

Stars assistant coach Tina McCauley will serve as meet director for the four-day event, which will feature both individual and relay competition. The competition serves as a qualifier for junior and senior national meets.

"This is the first time for us to host a meet of this magnitude," said Davidson, a former assistant coach at Penn State and Cleveland State. "We're really excited for this opportunity."

One of the unique aspects of the sectionals is the fact that it will have swimmers ranging from age 13 to those in their early 30s. All swimmers must meet a qualifying standard to compete.

"This is our focus meet for the year," said Davidson. "We're very young right now but I think we will do well."

The Solon Stars girls' individual qualifiers include Gretchen Hestley (Cleveland State), Melissa Besman (Bucknell), Emily Schwartz (North Carolina-Wilmington), Taylor Pearl (MIT), Annie Marquiss (Miami of Ohio), Katherine Mitchell (Wheaton College), Dana Lautenschlager (Solon High School), Anna Wong (Solon High School), Mary Motch (Hathaway Brown) and Kelsey McRill (Solon High School). Motch, at age 13, will be one of the youngest swimmers in the meet. Marquiss, Taylor, Wong and McRill all earned All-Ohio honors last season.

The Stars' lineup for the boys includes Ryan Carson (Solon High School), Mark Lippert (Solon High School), Patrick Tippen (Solon High School), Elijah Spiro (Hawken School), Alex Cohara (Cleveland State), Jamie Gallagher (Georgetown), Alex Polishchuk (Solon High School) and Niko Lemac, who hails from Croatia. Gallagher and Polishchuk were All-Ohio swimmers for the Comets last season.

Solon Stars alumni who are swimming in college include Ryan Astalos (Hiram), Maryn Bieganski (Universty of South Carolina), Kari Koeberle (Allegheny), Heather Moore (Notre Dame College) and Terrence Wong (Carnegie Mellon).

The Solon Stars team was founded in 1995 by Jim Sordi, who is an assistant age group coach with the club. Also assisting Davidson are Kevin Harrod, Dave Evans, Doug Champior, McCauley, Sarah Ratica and Fredy Arnold.

One thing is for sure when the summer sectionals take place in two weeks – the Solon Stars' staff will be working just as hard as its swimmers.