Last call for 'The Jackson Four' brings monster OHSAA district swim wins

CLEVELAND — They arrived as baby Bears four years ago, four freshman making a splash herd around the Federal League.

Daniel Ham, Ezra Herring, Holden Nist and Luke Vickers bow out as a spectacle.

The last road trip for "The Jackson Four" was a perfect metaphor.

Vickers, Nist, Herring and Ham bounced around Busbey Natatorium as decorated seniors, thirsty for more.

They opened Saturday's OHSAA Division I district championships with a runaway relay win.

They closed the show with a perfect encore.

"It has gone by s-o-o-o fast," said Vickers. "And this season has been the fastest ever. I can't believe there's only one week left."

Jackson didn't just qualify swimmers for next Saturday's close-to-home state meet. It stormed its way to Canton, winning the district boys team championship with 369 points. Closest among 23 other teams that scored was Hudson with 234, followed by Wooster with 220 and Hoover with 205.

"Between the boys team and the girls team, we sent 27 swimmers and five divers to Cleveland," head coach Doug Nist said. "That's the biggest team I've taken in my five years. It's pretty exciting."

The team is led by Vickers, Ham, Herring and Holden Nist, Doug's son.

"I probably mentioned this four years ago … you never know what's going to happen," Doug Nist said. "You hope all four guys remain swimming.

"People get other interests, or things happen, or they move. To have it where it is right now …

"I hadn't really thought about it until sectionals, when they walked by me. As freshmen, they were about my height. Now … you have that little moment where you go, holy crap, these guys are big.

"You look at them and just kind of think, this is interesting."

The Bears opened by winning the medley relay and kept the pedal to the metal as the individual events began, with Ham and Nist placing one-two in the 200 freestyle, just ahead of Lake senior Michael Blawas.

The beat went on when Vickers won the 200 individual medley in 1:50.78, oceans ahead of runner-up Alex Gallagher of Hudson (1:53.78). A state runner-up in the 100 breaststroke last year, Vickers defended his district turf with a championship in 54.89.

Herring followed with a decisive win in the 100 butterfly (48.77), in which Hoover senior Peter Helmuth (50.73) and Blawas (50.78) waged a great race for silver.

Ham just missed double gold when Wooster senior Andrei Dordea beat him in a blink in the 100 freestyle, 46.51-46.61.

Holden Nist earned double silver with a state-qualifying swim in the 500 freestyle. Hudson junior Ivan Reber (4:43.00) and Nist (4:45.37) swam away from the field.

The Federal League was back at the top of the awards stand when Hoover's Helmuth won the 100 backstroke in 50.74, well ahead of Solon's Drew Yagour (51.96).

"Peter is a relentess worker," said Hoover head coach Richard Vaughn. "He's always trying to dial in.to find that tenth of a second or hundredth of a second. It really came together for him today."

For Jackson, the meet-opening medley relay set the tone.

There was no one to push Ham (backstroke), Vickers (breaststroke), Herring (butterfly) and Nist (freestyle), so they pushed themselves. Their 1:32.49 was nearly three seconds faster than runner-up Hudson's 1:35.34.

In the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay, the swim order of Nist, Herring, Vickers and Ham clicked to the tune of a 3:05.63. Wooster was three-plus seconds back, followed by Hoover (Jack Katigbak, Brayden Peresie, Mason Lewis, Helmuth).

"It's a long meet," Vickers said "It's hard to be at full energy for five hours, but everybody did an awesome job of bringing it.

"Everybody on the team worked so hard for this. So many swimmers had so many personal bests. It was just awesome."

Vickers' win in the 100 breaststroke gave him four gold medals between individuals and relays.

Other top area finishes came from Herring, third in the 50 freestyle, and Hoover's third-place 200 freestyle relay (Brayden Peresie, Ryland Most, Mason Lewis, Jack Katigbak), abd Hoover's third-place 400 relay (Kaitigbak, Peresie, Lewis, Helmuth).

Hundreds of stories outside races for first place unfolded on the clamorous pool deck of Busbey Natatorium. In the butterfly, for example, Hoover senior Xavier Allshouse (53.61), Mentor senior Reece Benedict (53.61) and GlenOak senior Matt Calvert (53.65) practically were in a dead heat to get inside the top 10.

The big story was Jackson. The Polar Bears were No. 1, by a lot.

Other top 10s by area swimmers came from:

• 200 medley relay: 8, GlenOak (Fitzsimmons, Swarny, Calvert, Click); 10, Green (Doerrer, McMillen, Byers, Canter)

• 200 individual medley: 8, Ben Allen, Jackson

• 50 freestyle: 7, Jack Katigbak, Hoover, 21.91; 8, Camden Doerrer, Green, 22.03

• 100 butterfly: 9, Xavier Allshouse, Hoover

• 100 freestyle: 4, Camden Doerrer, Green; 6, Luke Mazon, Jackson; 7, Isaac Zackary, Jackson; 9, Carter Black, Hoover

• 500 freestyle: 5, Andrew Heck, Jackson

• 200 freestyle relay: 4, Green (Byers, Canter, McMillen, Doerrer); 6, Jackson (Mazon, Allen, Wasco, Zackary); 7, GlenOak (Matt Calvert, Nico Burress, Kyle Swarny, Alex Click)

• 100 backstroke: 9, Brayden Peresie, Hoover

• 100 breaststroke: 6, Seth McMillen, Green; 9, Xavier Allshouse, Hoover; 10, Ben Allen, Jackson

• 400 freestyle relay: 9, GlenOak (Fitzsimmons, Burress, Lewis, Click).

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jackson High School rules OHSAA district boys swimming in Cleveland