{"id":194336,"date":"2025-06-27T20:57:38","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T01:57:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=194336"},"modified":"2025-06-27T20:57:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T01:57:39","slug":"wapak-to-host-woal-swim-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/06\/27\/wapak-to-host-woal-swim-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Wapak to host WOAL swim championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent sports\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WAPAKONETA &#8212;\u00a0More than 500 swimmers and their families will descend on Wapakoneta Friday and Saturday, July 11-12, for the annual Western Ohio Aquatics League (WOAL) Swim Championships. The WOAL is for swimmers aged 5-18 who are members of one of the league\u2019s teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wapakoneta WaterPark is the host site for the 2025 Swim Champs and will host seven teams: Ada Gators, Bluffton Sardines, Findlay Frogs, Kenton Stingrays, Shawnee Tide, Wapakoneta Waves, Westside Wave and Van Wert Marlins. Teams will compete for the 2025 league title.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"350\" height=\"266\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/kyliegh-swim-copy.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-194337\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The WOAL Swim Championships will be held July 11-12. <em>Photo submitted<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Events will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday, July 11, and will conclude around 2 p.m. Day two of champs will begin at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 12, and will conclude around 3 p.m. The league champs will be crowned at the end of day two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are expecting close to 3,000 people in Wapakoneta for the two-day event,\u201d said Jennie Wilson, president of the Bluffton Sardines Swim Club. \u201cThere is great energy behind swimming as a sport in our area, and the summer league program is a great way to keep the swimmers active and competitive.\u201d Each year, the championships rotate between Bluffton, Kenton, and Wapakoneta pools.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Teams have been competing against each other since early June. However, many of the swimmers compete year-round with their local YMCA team. Some participants also swim for local USA Swimming teams and have qualified for other competitions through this program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Local companies and individual sponsors for the WOAL champs include: Baker Animal Hospital, Lima Sheet Metal (Ada), The Curling Iron, JTB Tech, Patriot, Family Resource Center (Bluffton), Brennan Family, Dairy Queen, Decanio Family, Cowan Realty, Cox Family (Shawnee), Diamond M Vet, Graphic Packaging, Quest FCU, Rogers Insurance, (Kenton),&nbsp; Cappies, Lima Tent ( Lima), YMCA (Van Wert),and Elks #54 (Wapakoneta)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Admission is free and open to the public. Concessions will be available for food and beverage purchases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent sports\/submitted information WAPAKONETA &#8212;\u00a0More than 500 swimmers and their families will descend on Wapakoneta Friday and Saturday, July 11-12, for the annual Western Ohio Aquatics League (WOAL) Swim Championships. The WOAL is for swimmers aged 5-18 who are members of one of the league\u2019s teams. Wapakoneta WaterPark is the host site for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-18 10:48:06","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194338,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194336\/revisions\/194338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}