Western Albemarle girls swimming is one of the state’s true dynasties.
There’s not really any other way to put it.
Not after Friday night in Christiansburg.
The Warriors won their fourth-straight state championship, this time in the newly-created 3A after three straight in Group AA.
“It was good,” said Western coach Dan Bledsoe. “It was long but it was good. Luckily the one thing we have is depth.”
That depth allowed Western to survive a brutally long schedule that started around 8 a.m. and didn’t wrap up with the 400-free relay until nearly 10 p.m.
“We kind of knew it was going to be a long day,” Bledsoe said. “I ran alternates in the preliminaries. We tried to get it so no girls swam more than three races in the morning.”
The Warriors even held Remedy Rule, Brazil Rule and Storrs Lamb out of all but one relay each, which allowed Western to pick and choose where to insert them for the finals.
“That gave us the flexibility to see where they fit best,” Bledsoe said. “Maybe they weren’t as highly seeded as we wanted them to be, but we swam really well at night.”
That bit of strategy and big-time performers proved to be a difference maker for the Warriors. Remedy Rule unleashed a monster of a day, winning both the 100-butterfly and 100-backstroke for individual state championships while anchoring the state-title winning 200-freestyle relay. She even swam on the second place medley relay, which means she played a role in 114 of the Warriors’ 304 points.
Brazil Rule also had a big day with a pair of top eight finishes in seventh in the 200-free and a sixth in the 100-free. She swam on the 200-free championship team and helped boost the 400-free team during preliminaries into one of the top eight slots, securing another solid haul of points for the Warriors.
Storrs Lamb formed the third part of the nucleus for the Warriors, taking third in the 50-freestyle sprint with a time of 24.51 before taking seventh in the 100-free to stack up 28 points individually for Western.
From there, the Warriors’ depth took over. Sophomore Colleen Higgins did the bulk of her work in prelims, swimming lifetime bests in the 100-breast and 200-IM to vault herself into the final heat in each even, securing a minimum of 22 points for the Warriors. She scored 27 with a fifth in the breaststroke and a sixth in the 200-IM.
Senior Kristen Richey had a huge night for the Warriors, swimming a lifetime best in the 100-fly to finish 10th while also taking 11th in the 50-free.
The Warriors’ divers also gave them a big boost with LeAnn Tarleton, Charlotte Norris and Alexandra Brown placing in the top eight to combine for 41 points with Tarleton’s third place finish leading the way.
With an insurmountable lead going into the 400-free relay, the Warriors were even able to work senior Maddie Tegen, a captain who wouldn’t normally swim a relay, onto the 400-free relay squad as a last second alternate.
“She was ready in about five seconds,” Bledsoe said.
The Warriors, who’ve become renowned for the way they support their squad on deck during the state meet in particular were on point once again when it came to generating excitement.
“They stayed up the entire time,” Bledsoe said. “Whenever they brought our swimmers out of the ready room, they were rotating cheers they were doing. They had the Globo Gym (Purple Cobras) entrance going (at one point) from the movie Dodgeball. They were great.”
The Warriors’ seniors, including Lexi Campbell who was part of the state title in the 200-free relay, walk away from high school swimming with four straight state titles.
Western boys take sixth
Western’s boys only have one year-round swimmer, which makes it hard to push a lot of the Warriors’ into the state meet’s tough-to-make-the-cut time qualifying system.
But with just one year-round swimmer – Danny O’Dea – on the roster, the Warriors still managed to put together a strong performance while Hidden Valley held off second place Lafayette for the title.
O’dea put together a big meet with a fifth place tie in the 100-freestyle and another fifth in the 100-backstroke. The Warriors also pushed a pair of swimmers into the 500-free, Meade Cogan and Ian O’Donnell, who took 12th and 13th in the event.
The Warriors also got a big lift from their fifth place 400-free relay team of Kyle Benson, Jake Paulson, Andy Cohem and O’Dea while Bobby Surina fifth place showing in the dive also helped solidify Western’s efforts.
Other locals in Christiansburg
Monticello’s Buddy Anderson took 10th in the 50-free in the 3A race while Garrett Mooney took sixth in diving in 3A competition.
William Monroe’s Kara Taylor took 11th in the 3A girls 100-breast race.
Goochland’s Justin Edwards won both the 200-IM for and the 100-breast the 2A boys. He took the IM in a time of 1:55.44 and won the breaststroke by more than five seconds with a time of 1:01.42
Madison’s Kara Morgan McHaney won the girls 100-fly 2A title with a dominant swim of 58.93 and also sangged a runner-up spot in the 100-free for 2A. Madison County’s Rosemarie Mullen took eighth in the women’s 50-free in the 2A race.
Madison also entered a 200-free relay and took third in the event, with Mullen, McHaney, Christine Mullen and Jenna Grace Kelliher combining in the effort.
