Two veteran Columbiana County swimmers will be battling for high podium spots, while a promising freshman will look to gain valuable experience as the Ohio swimming and diving state tournament gets underway Thursday and Friday at the C.T. Branin Natatorium in Canton.

Salem senior Ryan Folger and Beaver Local junior Cole Long and will both be making their third trips to the Div. II state meet.

Folger is seeded fifth in the 100-yard butterfly (50.51) after taking third at the Cleveland State district on Friday. The top seven spots in that event are seniors and the field is led by Oak Harbor and University of Pittsburgh commit Austin Sorg who owns a time of 48.22 heading into Thursday. University School’s Paul Moody (U.S. Military Academy) is seeded second in 48.27.

Folger is also seeded 21st in the breaststroke (1:00.68) after he placed seventh at the district meet. Columbus St. Francis DeSales’ Luke Francisco owns the top seed time in that event (55.98).

In 2025, Folger was 19th in the butterfly in 53.47 and finished 32nd in the backstroke in 58.08 at state. As a sophomore, Folger took 10th in the butterfly in 51.84.

Long has the 11th seed in 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke. At the Ohio University district on Friday, Long took second in the 200 individual medley (1:56.68) and fourth in the backstroke (53.61). DeFrancisco also owns the top time in the 200 IM (1:49.33) coming into Thursday.

In 2025, Long took 12th in the 100 backstroke in 53.28 and 13th in the 200 individual medley in 1:57.99 at state. As a freshman Long was 18th in the 200 individual medley in 1:59.55 and 28th in the backstroke in 56.00. Moody is the top seed in the backstroke (48.1).

United Local freshman Leighton Birmingham swam a personal best 2:15.51 in the 200 individual medley at the Cleveland State Div. II district meet on Friday to place sixth and is seeded 22nd in that event at state. She is one of five freshman in the field in that event and had the second best time for a freshman behind Cincinnati Madeira’s Savannah Homm who is seeded 18th (2:14.59). Florida State University commit Sophia Jiminez of Hathaway Brown has the top seed time of 2:02.75. She was second in the event last year at state.

Birmingham also qualified in the 100 butterfly where she is seeded 29th (1:02.14). She placed seventh in the event at districts and is one of seven freshman state qualifiers in that event. The top seed is Ontario junior and Liberty University commit Mirielle Trumpower (54.96).

This is the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s 99th boys state swimming meet, while it marks the 50th anniversary for the girls’ state meet.

Each individual event will feature 32 competitors with the top eight going on to Friday’s final. The next best eight will race in a consolation final.

Preliminaries will begin at 5 p.m. on Thursday and will run until about 9 p.m. Finals are set for 5 p.m. on Friday. Doors will open at 3:30 p.m. each day for spectators.

Adult tickets are $20 per session, while student tickets are $15. All tickets must be purchased through HomeTown Ticketing.

The NFHS Network will stream the event. Cost of an NFHS subscription is $13.99 for the month.