Firestone graduates Mark Gangloff, Katie Miller Como headed to APS Athletics HOF

Mark Gangloff and Katie Miller Como are considered two of the best swimmers to graduate from Firestone High School.

Both earned All-America honors and multiple Division I state championships after embracing the long hours during their teenage years swimming laps in the pool at Harvey S. Firestone Natatorium and doing dry land workouts with medicine balls and other weights.

Firestone coach Cindy Dial said she knew Gangloff and Miller Como had the potential to be special in the water. They both lived up to those expectations and will be inducted into the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame during a ceremony Saturday night at House Three Thirty.

The honor is one of many for the swimmers.

Gangloff, a 2000 Firestone graduate, was a standout at Auburn University and then earned two Olympic gold medals as a United States swimmer. He is now the coach of the University of North Carolina men's and women's swim teams.

Miller Como, a 2013 Firestone graduate, enjoyed success collegiately at Notre Dame. She now lives in Phoenix and is employed as a project manager with Datavant, a health care company.

"What Mark has done for himself, for Akron Public Schools, for Firestone, for Auburn and for U.S. Swimming, and now crossing over to the other side and coaching and being on deck at UNC, this is a true tribute to the type of person and athlete that he is," Dial said by phone.

"With Katie, it takes that special person that is willing to dedicate themselves to their sport and to have the accomplishments she has not only in the classroom but also in the water is impressive. Being a female and going to Notre Dame and being an engineer is terrific.

"The proudest thing that we have in our program is to see our athletes turn into great adults, and both of them have done that."

Mark Gangloff's path to the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame

Gangloff advanced to the Division I state meet all four years of high school, winning three state championships in the 100-yard breaststroke and one state title in the 200 individual medley.

Gangloff set two state records at Canton's C.T. Branin Natatorium as senior when he touched the wall first in the 100 breaststroke in 55.10 seconds and the 200 IM in 1:47.63.

His other two state titles were in the 100 breaststroke as a sophomore (55.64) and as a junior (55.58). He also finished second in the state meet five times — in the 200 IM, 200 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay as a junior and in the 200 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay as a senior.

"That was such a formative time for my athletic career," Gangloff said by phone. "Firestone has a rich tradition of swimming excellence, long before I even got there. If I didn't have the experience that I did at Akron Firestone High School, there is no way I would have been able to accomplish the things I did even after that going on to college and then on to my Olympic career.

"To have that experience, to be in that environment, to live off the legacy of Akron Firestone swimming means a lot to me and was transformative in who I was as an athlete."

Gangloff credited former Firestone coach Tim Lewarchick and Dial for helping him improve, and is appreciative of the support from his parents, Ken and Jennifer, and sisters, Corey and Cindy.

"Tim and I were very close and I trusted him a lot," Gangloff said. "We worked really hard together to accomplish my goals and aspirations. To me that is what an athlete really needs is a person to believe in them and then also to work as hard as they do in order to be successful."

Gangloff earned a degree in criminology from Auburn after helping the Tigers win NCAA team championships in 2003 and 2004 and four SEC team titles. Individually, Gangloff earned 12 All-America honors and won SEC titles in the 100 and 200 breast and the 200 and 400 medley relays.

"My senior year at Auburn in 2004 as a captain, we broke the scoring record at the NCAAs and it still stands now — that is a real proud moment of my career," Gangloff said. "... And then obviously after my senior year making my first Olympic team. At that point in time, I was the third-fastest breaststroker in the country. I had potential to make the Olympic team, but I had to actually go out and do it.

"It was a huge sigh of relief because you put pressure on yourself in order to try to accomplish those goals. I am so grateful to be able to do it."

Gangloff won his two Olympic gold medals as part of the 400 medley relay in Athens, Greece, in 2004 and in Beijing, China, in 2008.

Gangloff is a three-time gold medalist in the 400 medley relay at the World Championships, and won a silver and bronze in the 50 breaststroke. He also participated in three Pan-American Games, winning gold in the 400 medley relay in 2003 and 2007, gold in the 100 breast in 2003 and bronze in the 200 breast in 1999.

Gangloff previously coached at Missouri and Auburn. His wife, Ashley, is a former national champion diver at Auburn, and the couple has three daughters, Annabelle (13), Hattie Rose (10) and Kit (8).

Katie Miller Como's path to the Akron Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame

Miller Como competed in the Division I state meet all four years of high school, winning two state championships in the 200-yard individual medley and one state title in the 100 backstroke.

Miller Como set the state and pool record at Canton's C.T. Branin Natatorium as senior when she touched the wall first in the 200 IM in 1:57.98 and added a state championship in the 100 backstroke in 54.04 seconds.

Her other state title came as a sophomore in the 200 IM in 2:00.62. She also finished second in the state meet in the 500 freestyle as a sophomore and in the 100 backstroke as a junior.

"This is definitely an honor and privilege," Miller Como said by phone of being selected to the APS Athletics Hall of Fame. "It is very humbling to be remembered and thought of, having graduated 10 years ago now. This is definitely not something I expected and I was very surprised.

"It is an honor more than anything else to see the people alongside myself that I am able to be inducted with and all of their accomplishments. Everything that Mark has done as well swimming-wise as somebody that I looked up to when I was in high school."

Miller Como lives in Phoenix with her husband, Steve Como, and their 1-month-old son, Jackson. Her parents, Frank and Arlene Miller, and brother, Tyler, have also relocated to Arizona.

"Reflecting on my time at Firestone, I met Cindy prior to high school and I was very intimidated with high school swimming," Miller Como said. "The demands of the morning practices and the competition were intimidating, but also something I was excited for. I was excited to see what I was going to be able to do. Going through Firestone, I definitely got as much out of my potential as I could at that age, which was more than I thought possible.

"Something I learned with Cindy that I knew going into high school was that it was going to be a lot of hard work. You only get better with what you put in and the hard work from that. ... I was very fortunate to have a coach like Cindy in my life."

Miller Como earned a degree in mechanical engineering in four years at Notre Dame, where she competed in the 400 IM, 200 IM, 200 backstroke and 800 free relay.

"Katie is very deserving and was a wonderful representative on the women's side of Firestone swimming," Gangloff said.

Cindy Dial reflects on coaching Mark Gangloff and Katie Miller Como

Dial is in her 28th year at Firestone overall and her 22nd as head coach after six years as an assistant to Lewarchick.

"I had just started as an assistant with Firestone when Mark was starting his freshman year [in 1996]," Dial said. "I was really getting to know the personalities. We had a heck of a group of boys back at that time. They were all a handful and liked to see how far they could push me. It was a learning experience for all of us.

"Katie came up through our age group program. I knew that she was definitely a student of her sport and she could get out of any race even at 11 or 12 years old and tell you the things that she needed to do better and the things that she did really well. I knew with Katie that I had to have my A game on all the time and challenge her.

"... Katie was in the IB program. She was very studious. She was always a perfectionist and she really connected with [Firestone teachers] Christine Milcetich and Jill Hanigofsky."

Miller Como had a 4.3 GPA in high school and was one of 15 valedictorians in her graduating class at Firestone.

"I got to speak at Katie's wedding," Dial said. "I was very honored to do that for her out in Phoenix. I see Mark on deck at big meets. He doesn't get an opportunity to come around too often, so I will see him at Junior Nationals or something like that.

"[University of Florida freshman and 2023 Firestone graduate] Jonny Marshall went to North Carolina on a recruiting trip last year. That is neat to have that connection. Jonny finished first in the 100-meter backstroke in 54.59 seconds at Junior Nationals this summer, and Mark was sitting up in the stands watching."

Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: State champs Mark Gangloff, Katie Miller Como enter APS Hall of Fame