Tipp Torpedoes finish summer season

The Tipp Torpedoes summer swim team has completed another season as the 5C District Championships, and head coach Erin Gutman is pleased with how the season went for the local swimmers.

“Overall, we finished fourth out of the six teams in our league,” Gutman said, a 2005 Botkins High School graduate and record-setting swimmer with the Trojans. “There are five counties involved and we had five meets this year. We do keep score but don't really publicly talk about the times, we just try to get the kids to swim their best times.”

“It is focused on each kid improving their times and swimming something they haven't swam before and get faster.”

“Everyone had a lot of time drops and PRs and I am proud of our kids for that,” Gutman continues. “It is difficult to compete in that league when you don't have the older kids. We are very heavy on 9-12-year-olds, so we are looking for additional swimmers in the 13-18 age groups. We only had three 15-18 boys this year and it takes four to make relays. It makes it tough to compete. Botkins had two 15-18 boys relays and we had none. We are hoping to expand those age groups.”

The 5C District consists of Minster, Troy, Botkins, Bellefontaine and Versailles, and the competition in the district is challenging according to Gutman, but bottom line is everyone is supporting each other.

“It is a fun league to be in, we flip who is on top every year,” she said. “Minster usually has the older kids and Troy had a huge surge, so it was tough to compete. We just have a good time, and the swimmers just help each other out, it is great to be involved in and everyone wants the kids to have fun and everyone is rooting for each other.”

Even with a lower number of older swimmers, Tipp had 133 swimmers on board this summer which is a number that pleased Gutman.

“I am definitely pleased with that number, but I would like to get it back up,” she said. “Covid put us at low numbers, and we didn't have a swim team that year without a pool. We had low numbers coming back from that.”

“We have been progressively building that back up. If we could add kids in the older age groups and get it up to 170-180 that would be great. I hope the younger kids continue to swim and continue to go through the older age groups.”

In 2025 and 2026, Tipp will be hosting the Championships with the top swimmers from all six teams coming to Tipp to swim, which is a huge boost to bring everyone into the city.

“It is a great event, with a huge morning and early afternoon event,” Gutman said. “Teams bring 60-80 swimmers so it will be packed. It finishes up around lunchtime so they will be out in the community. It is also a great time to show pride in Tipp. It is great to have parents help out and our board is at every event. That is why I love to be here at Tipp.”

Gutman makes a plea with the older kids at Tipp to come enjoy the team next summer.

“I encourage the high school swimmers to come out and have some fun with this team,” Gutman said. “I have not had huge numbers from the high school kids, but it is a place to have fun. It is a chance to swim events they usually don't get to swim and break records that we have. We just had a record broken this year 15U Butterfly Mikey Stanford broke a record held for 29 years.”

“Tipp is also the only team in the district to hold night practices and parents can get their kids there.”