Last year they got it done on the final touch of the wall.
This year? They could breathe easy much earlier.
Western Albemarle’s girls swim team won its second straight Group AA swimming and diving title Saturday with a dominant performance at the Christiansburg Aquatics Center, winning with a 262-point performance that outpaced second place William Byrd’s 202-point output.
Western’s depth allowed them to overcome Byrd’s incredible top-end talent that won both the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays, setting state records in both events.
The Warriors built a big early lead with strong performances Saturday, but the meet really kicked into high gear when senior Natalie Cronk put together a thrilling performance in the 100-meter butterfly. Cronk started slow and was in fourth place at the mid-point of the race according to the splits.
“I definitely knew I was behind after the second 25,” Cronk said. “I just knew I had to catch up.”
Cronk powered back, unleashing an incredible final 50 meters to out-touch Byrd’s Kacy Edsall. It was Cronk’s final chance in an incredible high school career to earn one of the few things missing from her resume — an individual event state title.
“It was a Michael Phelps finish, she wanted it,” said Western coach Diana Bowen. “She really did.”
Cronk also placed third in the 200-IM while Seana Acker, who battled a stomach bug much of the weekend, took eighth in the event. Acker also finished seventh in the 100-breast.
No Western Albemarle swimmer had ever earned an individual event title until Saturday and Cronk’s win in the butterfly would’ve been the first if freshman Remedy Rule wasn’t on the roster. Rule, who has taken the scholastic swimming world by storm, won two individual events Saturday, sweeping titles in the 100-freestyle and 200-freestyle. Friday in the 200-free’s preliminaries, she broke the state record and then Saturday she smashed her own mark with a blazing time of 1:49.16, winning the race by more than five seconds. She missed the state record in 100-freestyle by just three hundredths of a second.
Rule is the centerpiece of a loaded freshman class, a group that factored into the relays and played a huge role in Jefferson District and Region II titles.
“It’s been this seamless integration of this really talented freshman class with the talented group that we already had,” Bledsoe said.
The Warriors were terrific in the relays, taking second in the 200-medley relay (Rule, Cronk, Acker and Katie Lesemann made up the team), a third in the 200-freestyle relay (Lesemann, Elsa Strickland, Anna Corley and Keller Whitlock), and a runner-up run in the 400-freestyle event that closed out the championships. Strickland, Acker, Cronk and Rule put together a solid run in that race and actually topped the standing state record, but Byrd edged the Warriors by .28 seconds.
The Warriors came into Saturday’s final day of the meet with a 42-point leg-up because the squad’s terrific diving contingent piled up that advantage with three top-10 finishes. Katie Sheppard finished as the state runner-up while Hannah Chiarella and Meredith Higgins went back-to-back at seventh and eighth.
“I don’t think a lot of schools have divers like that — we’re really lucky,” Cronk said.
Lesemann took seventh in the 100-back and 12th in the 50-meter freestyle for the Warriors to score key points. Anna Corley finished 16th in the 500-freestyle and 14th in the 100-back.
All those points in key spots were why the Warriors had the title in the bag before the final event even left the blocks. Western led by 48 points and only 40 points were on the line in the last relay. Rule and the slew of experienced swimmers were the reason for that wide margin.
“She’s so fast, it’s so great to have her come up and be that good,” Cronk said. “They should win it next year too.”
No pressure though.
