Senior Sandy Whitaker was ready to make a decision that would allow him some fun in his final seven months at St. Charles Preparatory School.

The standout on the school's swimming and diving team signed last Monday to swim at the University of Minnesota.

"I kind of wanted to wait until the end of season, but then I might not get the scholarship I was looking for," Whitaker said. "The money might still be there, but not at Minnesota, and I wanted to make sure I was able to go there."

Whitaker won Division I state titles in the 100-yard backstroke (program-record 50.36 seconds) and 100 butterfly (program-record 49.48). He also joined senior Jay Schuh and 2009 graduates Eric Grunden and Erik Mai to win state in the 200 medley relay (1:33.21).

The Cardinals were second at state with 265 points. Cincinnati St. Xavier (322) won the championship.

"I was looking at a few colleges, but Minnesota seemed like the right fit," said Whitaker, who also considered Notre Dame, Ohio State, and Southern Methodist University. "I like the guys on the team and (the Golden Gophers) have a good facility. And, also, I wanted to go out-of-state and experience new things."

Whitaker is familiar with the Minneapolis area. His family lived there when he was younger.

"I used to live in Stillwater (Minn.) for three years like when I was (ages) 1-4 and we go back there and visit every year," he said. "(Stillwater) is only about 30 minutes away and my older brother, Shawn Smalley, lives there and owns a restaurant called Smalley's Caribbean BBQ and Pirate Bar."

Kyle Goodrich, Whitaker's coach with the Cardinals for the three previous seasons, believes the swimmer's drive separates him from his peers.

"Sandy is very physically gifted and he has a great build for swimming. But I think his biggest attribute is his desire to succeed and win," said Goodrich, who is still an assistant in the program. "He is a hard worker and his desire to touch the wall first has helped him go from a middle-of-the-road swimmer to an elite swimmer."

Whitaker is a club swimmer for the Greater Columbus Swim Team of Ohio (GCSTO). His top time in the 100 fly (48.88) came during the club season.

•Offensive lineman Justin Stumph has verbally committed to play  football at Miami University in Oxford.

"I just really liked everything about the school, I really liked their coach and I felt really comfortable there," said Stumph, a 6-foot-4, 280-pound Westerville resident who was the Offensive MVP for the Cardinals. "I looked at Indiana, Northwestern and most of MAC schools. I didn't want to go far from home, even though most of my offers were from schools in the Midwest. So, no matter where I would have gone, I would not have been that far away."

Stumph, who plans to major in chemistry or biology en route to medical school, was first-team all-district and all-league with 47 pancakes and he graded 90 percent or better in all of his games.

•The cross country team won its third consecutive CCL title on Oct. 17 at Otterbein. It was the program's 10th league championship in 11 seasons, but the Cardinals failed to advance a runner to the state meet on Nov. 7 at Scioto Downs.

Junior Chris Quinn finished 31st in the Division I regional meet on Oct. 31 at Pickerington North in 18 minutes, 18.05 seconds, but did not advance. Only the top four teams and top 16 individuals qualified for state. Teays Valley's Taylor Conn finished 16th in 17:45.08 to take the final state-qualifying spot.

Teams advancing to state were Pickerington North (75), Reynoldsburg (118), New Albany (139) and Dublin Coffman (147).

Quinn was the lone St. Charles runner to advance to regional after he placed 21st (17:55.23) in the district 3 meet on Oct. 24 at Watkins Memorial. The top 24 runners and top six teams advanced to regional.

The Cardinals finished 10th (236) of 13 teams at district behind regional-qualifiers New Albany (67), Reynoldsburg (69), Olentangy Liberty (76), Hilliard Davidson (114), Hilliard Bradley (118) and Thomas Worthington (141).

Junior Eric Niemeyer (43rd, 18:51.06) was next for St. Charles at district followed by senior Austin Guter (49th, 19:04.00), senior Patrick Lynch (63rd, 19:30.18), sophomore Michael Susa (64th, 19:39.03) and sophomore Stuart Swartz (65th, 19:47.55).

In the league meet, the Cardinals had all seven runners finish in the top 18 to secure the title with 32 points followed by Watterson (49 points), Hartley (81), Ready (99), DeSales (120) and Worthington Christian (155).

Quinn won the race in 17:24.27, ahead of runner-up Andrew Mantell (17:40.84) of Ready.

Senior Andrew Zaksheske (fourth, 17:44.43) was next for St. Charles, followed by Guter (sixth, 17:53.87), Niemeyer (10th, 18:09.87), Swartz (11th, 18:10.58), Lynch (17th, 18:36.52) and Susa (18th, 18:41.52).

Lynch, Kyle Nazario, Suter and Zaksheske were the seniors for St. Charles.

The Cardinals expect to return their top runner in Quinn, as well as juniors Keengan Bakos and Niemeyer. Sophomores expected back are Dominic Julian, Susa and Swartz. The freshmen included Tom Krajnak and Brian Vetter.

Damien Brandon was the first-year coach for St. Charles after being an assistant for 11-year coach Steve Kull.