Hawks take 7th at states

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Woodland senior Patrick O’Dell swam to two individual third-place finishes and earned all-state honors at the Class S boys swimming championships Tuesday at Wesleyan University. The Hawks finished seventh overall. –RA ARCHIVE

MIDDLETOWN — The Woodland boys swimming and diving team — complete with perhaps the smallest roster in school history — finished its season with a seventh-place finish at Tuesday’s Class S championships at Wesleyan University.

Senior Patrick O’Dell was the star of the day for Woodland, racking up two third-place finishes in individual races to earn all-state honors while also being part of the third-place 200 medley relay team.

O’Dell was third in the 200 individual medley, finishing in 2:01.55, as well as the 100 backstroke, clocking in at 54.35 seconds.

He was also part of the 200 medley relay team with Andy O’Dell, Alan Katrenya, and Eric Dietz. The team finished in 1:41.88, just more than a second behind the winning pace.

Dietz and Andy O’Dell also posted strong performances in multiple races. Dietz was fourth in the 50 freestyle with a time of 22.92 seconds, less than a half-second off the winning time. He also placed seventh in the 100 free, finishing in 51.26 seconds.

Andy O’Dell racked up a pair of eighth-place performances in his individual races. He was eighth in the 100 free with a time of 51.86 seconds, and eighth in the 200 free with a finish of 1:54.78.

Katrenya was 15th in the 100 breaststroke, clocking in at 1:07.28. Freshman Aidan Music also competed in a pair of races, finishing 22nd in the 200 IM in 2:16.55 and 22nd in the 100 breaststroke in 1:09.82.

Divers Michael Christiano and Steve McCusker both competed in last week’s diving finals. Christiano was the top finisher for the Hawks, placing sixth with 292.25 points.

Woodland’s 400 free relay team of the O’Dells, Dietz, and Music was also strong, finishing sixth in 3:28.83. The other relay squad, the 200 free relay group of Jimmy Tompkins, Andrew Cullen, John Dyckman, and Music, placed 18th in 1:42.15.

The Hawks’ seventh-place finish overall is the latest in the string of successful results at the Class S championship meet. In each of the last two years, Woodland finished sixth in the class.