Ross boys swim team celebrates unprecedented state success

Stewart has been the Rams head coach for more than a decade — and he’s been waiting to celebrate with the team during a moment like this one.

Jubilantly waving around the Ohio HIgh School Athletic Association Division II team state runner-up trophy, Stewart proudly touted the prize to a crowd that supplied a warm welcome back to town.

He showed off the shiner on his forehead, too.

“I told the kids as we’re driving up, ‘We need to bring the energy,’” Stewart said after the 3 1/2-hour drive from Canton. “I said, ‘I don’t care if there is one car out there or 50, we’re going to bring the energy.’

“I wanted us hooting and hollering and honking the horns, coming out of the cars being crazy.

“I’m not going to tell them that and not embody it myself.”

Stewart got a little too enthusiastic and smacked himself in the head with the trophy.

“I was going like that,” he mimicked the celebration. “A gust of wind came — and boom! I told my wife that I just hit myself in the head.

“I didn’t realize it was bleeding until I got out of the car. I was just rubbing it because it hurt. I’m like, ‘Holy crap, I’m bleeding.’”

Stewart said it was worth watching his swimmers bring home a combined six Division II state tournament titles, along with team runner-up accolades.

“We went in pretty confident,” senior Cooper Burt said. “We were seeded first in everything almost. We were just confident.”

Burt won the 100 butterfly in 47.72 seconds and the 100 backstroke in 48.28. He broke the state record with his backstroke time.

“They asked me if I was surprised, and I kind of said, ‘No,’” Burt said of his record-breaking race. “I thought I’d go a little faster, to be honest with you. But still, it’s pretty insane.”

Senior Connor Bennett won the 200 individual medley in 1:49.32 and the 100 breaststroke in 55.61.

Burt, Bennett, junior Luke Mignery and sophomore Timmy Pfirrman won the 200 medley relay title in 1:32.30 and the 400 freestyle relay in 3:07.24.

“We started off a little bit nervous beforehand,” said Burt, who will swim at Ohio State next year. “But I think once we got in there and swam, we all kind of relaxed a little more.”

Bennett will swim at Cincinnati. Mignery, who is homeschooled, and Pfirrman, who made an impressive bounce back after breaking his wrist in the summer, are expected to return.

Stewart called it unprecedented times for the Rams, who practice off campus at the Clippard Family YMCA in Colerain.

“It’s always been this idea that Ross is a small farming community, right?” Stewart elaborated. “It is very much not that. I think there’s aspects of that still, but the community has very much evolved from those days. So I still think sometimes we think that, ‘Well, because of the stereotype, Ross may have some good teams in various sports from time to time. But they’re not going to have sustaining success.’ Well we can, though.

“This for me more than anything is a statement,” Stewart added. “That if you’re a dreamer, if you’re a believer, right? You can accomplish things. In terms of it being unprecedented, yes. Everyone is still used to Ross having one kid on the team — historically.

“If you’re a dreamer, if you’re a believer, you’re willing to do what it takes, and I’m willing to do what it takes, then we can get there again.”