Lorain County Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame to induct seventh class Saturday

A state champion and Big Ten swimmer, a state qualifier and college swimmer, a longtime swim coach and an All-Ohio diver and diving coach will make up the seventh class of the Lorain County Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame. Elyria's Colleen (Keith) Everhart, North Ridgeville's Rich Karban, St. Ignatius grad Matt Schlessman of Avon and Amherst's Kirsten Wengerd make up the class, which will be enshrined Saturday during a break between the 50 free and 100 fly at the Southwestern Conference meet at Cleveland State University's Busbey Natatorium.. Everhart has been a swim coach for Elyria High, the Elyria Y, Spring Valley Country Club and the Elyria Country Club, while Karban was a Division I All-Ohio diver in 1980 and is a longtime diving coach, including two stints at Cleveland State. Schlessman was a 1993 Division I 200 IM state champ, 11-time All-Ohio and All-Big Ten swimmer for the University of Minnesota, and Wengerd, a 2008 Amherst graduate, was a three-time Division I state qualifier for the Comets and a multiple all-conference swimmer at the University of Ashland. Colleen (Keith) Everhart, Elyria coach (1998-2008) While Everhart was Elyria High School's coach for the first 10 years of the program's existence, that was just a part of her long and illustrious coaching career. She began coaching in 1977 between her freshman and sophomore years while at Ohio State, where she was on the swimming team. The 1980 Ohio State grad and Elyria native began coaching Elyria Country Club from 1977-81. "Dave Wessely called me and asked me to at least assist or coach the Elyria Country Club team," Everhart said. "I hesitated initially at first but then I got very interested. I've enjoyed it over the years, coaching the kids from multiple teams. I especially love the fact that I got to coach all three of my kids." Everhart swam competitively for Spring Valley Country Club (1969-74), the Elyria YMCA (1969-76), Lake Shore Swim Club (1975-76) and Ohio State (1976-80). "I was a walk-on at Ohio State," said Everhart, a four-year letterwinner. "I just thought I'd try it. I finished all four years and liked it a lot. It was a lot of travel and injuries but I'm glad I stuck it out all four years. I made some long-lasting friendships." In addition to coaching Elyria Country Club and Elyria High, Everhart coached Bay High (1981-82), Lake Ridge Academy's seventh- and eighth-grade teams (1989-90), Spring Valley Country Club and the Elyria YMCA (1998-2004). She returned for two more stints at Elyria Country Club (2009-16 and 2020 to present) and has also coached the Amherst Aquatic Club since 2022. "Dave inspired me and got me going," Everhart said. "I really did enjoy it and or I wouldn't be doing it all these years. I retired for four years but then my grandkids started swimming so I've been back since then." Rich Karban, North Ridgeville (1980) Diving was just something fun to do at first for Karban, but by the time he was a junior in high school he knew he wanted to get serious about it. He did and he still is serious about it, being a diving coach for 40 years. As a junior at North Ridgeville, Karban began training with hall of fame coach John Ollila of the Berea Dive Club, who mentored many successful divers over the years. It took diving to a whole new level for Karban, who became the first North Ridgeville diver to advance to the Division I state meet in 1980, where he finished ninth. Karban was on pace to the make the top-six cutoff his junior year at state, but struggled with his eighth-round dive, a reverse 1.5 pike. As a result, he fell from sixth all the way to 13th and was eliminated (top 12 cutoff) after the semifinals (first eight dives). He rebounded his senior year to finish fourth out of six state qualifiers at the 1980 Cleveland State district and went on to place ninth at the state meet in Canton, finishing as the top placing diver from the Northeast district. "My senior year was a fun time," said Karban, a 2000 member of the Cleveland State University Athletic Hall of Fame. "My teammate Roger James and I won all the relay meets that we were in. Roger was pretty solid. He didn't make a mistake. It was a fun team to be on. So many of those swimmers were doing more than just swimming high school, they were swimming club team and things like that." Karban went on to be a four-year letterwinner as a diver at Cleveland State. He won the 3-meter dive title at the 1984 Eastern Michigan Intercollegiate Championships after taking fourth in the 3-meter and sixth in the 1-meter at the 1982 meet. He was named the CSU Swimming and Diving Team's Most Outstanding Athlete in 1984. He turned to coaching soon afterward, leading Cleveland State divers for one season (1986-87) before coaching at Eastern Michigan from 1989-94. He coached three-Mid American Conference champions at EMU and was named the 1990 MAC Women's Diving Coach of the Year. Karban returned to coach CSU from 2003-22 during which the Vikings had the Horizon League's men's diver of the year six times and the women's diver of the year once. He also coached Northeast Ohio divers from age 7-18 for his club team, Cleveland Area Diving, from 2013-22. He had 10 USA Diving age group national qualifiers, including four national champions and a 2014 Junior Pan Am bronze medalist. He also coached 36 high school state qualifiers, 30 state finalists (top 16) and three state champions. Matt Schlessman, St. Ignatius/Avon resident (1993) Schlessman won the 1993 Division I state title in the 200 IM to become the Wildcats' first state swimming champion and earned a combined 11 All-Ohio finishes (top 16) while helping the team post back-to-back Division I state runner-up finishes in 1992 and '93. "I would say every memory that I have to be honest isn't so much about the individual titles but it's the people," Schlessman said. "I think that's consistent with everything. My teammates and our relays are some of the best memories." Schlessman's family moved to Avon from North Dakota when he was in middle school. He trained at the Elyria Y under Dave Wessely. Under coach Mike Lehto, St. Ignatius made quite a postseason run during Schlessman's four years, going from ninth at state in 1990 to fifth in 1991 to second in 1992 and '93. "I was the No. 1 seed in the 200 IM coming into the 1993 state meet," said Schlessman, a four-time high school All-American. "You can look at it two ways being the top dog. You're expected to win but obviously it's a lot of pressure. Even if you didn't win it the year before you're the top person that everyone's looking at." Schlessman won the 200 IM state title in decisive fashion over Columbus St. Charles' Kyle Goodrich, 1:52.60 to 1:54.80. The 200 IM stroke order is 50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly and 50 free. "I remember getting onto the blocks just trying to stay in the zone and just really trying to stay focused on the race and what was in front of me," Schlessman said. "It was all planned out all year. You prepare all year for it but it all comes down to that race. I was prepared and executed. It all went to plan so I was very pleased." Schlessman also finished third in the 100 free (45.25) at the 1993 state meet and was a member of the second-place 200 free (1:25.48) and 400 free (3:07.08) relays. But it was his win in his leadoff event that set the table for the rest of the meet. "I had a strong butterfly," he said. "Backstroke was my weak leg. I knew that if I was in the lead or close to the lead at the end of the backstroke that that was going to set me up to win. I just touched out the person who was closest to me coming off the backstroke. That was all I needed." Schlessman went on to have a successful college career at the University of Minnesota (1993-97), where he was a 13-time NCAA All-American, two-time Academic All-American (1995, '97), three-time All-Big Ten (1995-97) and the 1997 Big Ten Medal of Honor recipient. "I swam NCAAs four years, as well as junior nationals and nationals and different USA Swimming events," Schlessman said. "There's no doubt in my mind that the most exciting and intense just in terms of the crowd and the atmosphere was the Ohio high school state swim meet. There's no meet like it. My sister Beth and I both swam with at the Elyria YMCA and just have some very fantastic memories. It was a competitive and fantastic program. Dave Wessely was a great coach and I had great teammates like Jennifer Saul and Matt Michaels. When we were in high school, we both started swimming with Team Viking at CSU. John Collis and Glenn Mills were our coaches there." Kirsten Wengerd, Amherst (2008) Wengerd's love for swimming developed early. She competed from the age of 8 to 16 for Elyria Country Club under Allison Spitzer and Beth Barrett, then also was an assistant coach at the club after graduating. She also swam for the Lorain Vermilion Family Y Torpedoes/USA team from age 9 till she graduated from Amherst. "I liked my teammates from our Y team, like Paige Samek and Kay Webber," Wengerd said. "We were teammates and rivals at the same time. We always came together in the pool which was fun. Swimming just made you a hard worker. You were dedicated to making your times faster and you hung out with your friends. It was always in my plans to swim at college. That was never a question. That's just because I have such a love for the sport. I wanted to see where it was going to take me." Wengerd was a three-time Division I state qualifier at Amherst and a six-time Southwestern Conference champion. She qualified to districts an average of four events each year she was in high school and had multiple top-5 finishes during district competition. "I spent a lot of time training with the boys team but I was fortunate to have Anna Masterson as my teammate," Wengerd said. "We still swam for the Y in the mornings so I still got to see like all my friends from the other teams, too. It was like a good combination. It was just kind of built in me being a hard worker always wanting to do my best. There were definitely hard days but looking back at it, what made you stronger were the days when you were struggling the most." Wengerd graduated from Amherst in 2008 as the school record-holder in 200 free, 500 free, 100 backstroke and as a member of 200 free relay. She still holds the school record in the 100 back. She went on to excel at Ashland University (2008-12), posting NCAA B qualifying times in 2008 in the 200 back and 500 free. She was an NCAA Division II Honorable Mention Scholar All-America in 2009 and had multiple top-eight and top-16 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference finishes and was a four-year member of GLIAC All-Academic Team. Contact Paul Heyse at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.