There was a certain beauty to what the Western Albemarle girls and boys swim and dive teams pulled off in Richmond as they won a double state title at the Group 3A championships. Or as Western swimmer Aaron James put it, poetry.
“We started off well with the medley relay and then the 50 was just crazy, then we backed it up with the 100-free and the 100-fly really and that was just awesome,” James said of the boys team. “After that it was poetry in motion.”
An ascendant Western boys program anchored by James but carried by a strong group of swimmers who piled up points outside the top three overcame a front-loaded Hidden Valley squad 351-276. A big reason for that was that the Warriors’ middle pack of swimmers were fantastic in the preliminary swims in the morning and put themselves in position to pick up more points than expected.
“We just knew that we had to take care of the morning and that if we took care of the morning, the afternoon would take care of itself,” said Western coach Dan Bledsoe. “We knew Hidden Valley’s top-end talent was going to be hard for us to match but they couldn’t match our middle. Our middle stepped up.”
Those points counted because James was a complete force, putting together a day befitting the VHSL Group 3A swimmer of the year award that he received prior to the meet. First he set a state record in a 50-free that was dominated by Jefferson District swimmers with Western’s A.J. Donovan taking second while Monticello’s Brian Young finished fourth. Then James managed to steal the 100-free despite being seeded second (he dropped 1.66 seconds off his seed time) and anchor the state record setting 200-free relay squad. With those points in the mix, Western’s boys had a nearly insurmountable 55-point lead. When it came down to the 400-free relay, Western’s boys squad was up by 39 points. Only a disqualification could derail the Warriors’ title bid, which led to some very careful dives off the platform. Once James dove in cleanly, it was all but clear that the Warriors had won, and Western finished with a flourish — a second place finish.
“I’ve been dreaming about this moment for awhile now so to see it happen is a dream come true,” James said. “It’s awesome because it’s not just about the swimmers, it’s about the parents supporting us in the stands and all of us getting behind each other and screaming each other on because it makes a difference.”
The Warriors got a couple of big swims from August Lamb, who took third in the 100-free and fourth in the 200-free. Trevor Phelps made a big move up in the B heat of the 200-free to finish ninth (cutting seven seconds to get there) and took eighth in the 500-free, sliding into the top heat with a strong finish . Then there was the pack of swimmers in the 200-IM’s B heat that took 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th in that race to stack up points. Jack Vaughn, Matt Mandell, Ian O’Donnell and Evan Sposato handled that points surge.
On Thursday, Wilson Brown finished second in the dive to give the Warriors a solid points boost. Donovan added a fifth place in the 100-fly to go with his runner-up finish in the 50-free behind James. Jason Heilman and Ian O’Donnell also tied for seventh in the 100-fly. Mandell took fourth in the 100-breast for the Warriors. Zach Bowen took 13th in the 200-free.
Jake Paulson, who swam a leg on the 200-medley and 400-free relay squads, took fifth in the 100-back and also snagged 12th in the 100-free.
Western’s 400-free relay finished second behind champion Hidden Valley.
Western girls win sixth-straight state title
The Warriors’ girls team won in a way unlike most of the other five championships that came before — without a single individual event championship in a 278-231 victory over Blacksburg.
“We have awesome people on our team, a lot of them don’t swim year round and they scored a lot of points,” said Western’s Colleen Higgins. “We just really turned ourselves around before we came here.”
It was a huge turn around for a squad that finished second in the Region 3A West meet just a week ago.
“We’re really good at taking what happened and moving past it right away,” Bledsoe said. “We can’t do anything about the past.”
Higgins was a big part of that surge as she bounced back from a particularly frustrating region meet where the Warriors finished second and had a huge meet in Richmond, taking second place in the 100-breast and fourth in 200-IM.
“At regionals I was just caught off guard and mentally I just wasn’t prepared,” Higgins said. “I went to practice after regionals, re-evaluated what I had done and then I came here to states and I was ready mentally and physically.”
Brazil Rule also gave the Warriors a huge edge with a runner-up finish in the 100-fly and a fourth place finish in the 200-free.
Beyond those two, Western got clutch swims from all over the roster. Morgan James took third in the 50-free despite being seeded sixth going into the race. She also bumped up a spot in the 100-free from a six-seed to a fifth-place finish. Those small moves helped power the Warriors, as did the relay teams. The 200-medley team finished third and the 200-free team finished second. The 400-free team finished seventh, but was a particularly special moment as three seniors — Jesse Duggan, Morgan Broadus and Lilly Elder — that weren’t swimming during the finals suited up at the last second with the Warriors’ state title already assured.
Charlotte Rumsey finished with a sixth place in the 200-IM and an eighth in the 100-fly. Caroline Riordan took 11th in the 50-free and 13th in the 100-free. Savannah Scarbrough took 11th in the 100-free and 15th in the 100-breast. McKenna Riley took 14th in the 200-free and in the 100-back.
In the dive competition on Thursday, Western piled up points with Charlotte Norris taking fourth, Mia Donalson seventh, Audrey Russell ninth and and Devon Barrett 13th.
Western is the fifth school all-time to win both a girls and boys swim title on the same day, joining George Mason (2015), James Robinson (2009), Thomas Jefferson (2002) and Tabb (2003). The Western girls’ sixth straight title gives them the longest consecutive state title streak in girls state swimming history.
Monticello finishes fifth in boys championship
Monticello freshman Bracken Eddy put together two strong swims for the Mustangs, taking second in the 200 IM and third in the 100-back.
Monticello’s Brian Young finished fourth in the 50-free and eighth in the 100-free. Monticello’s 400-free relay squad took fourth place. The Mustangs’ 200-free and 200-medley relay squads took fifth in each race.
Teddy Leeds-Armstrong finished 14th in the 100-free while Peter Tegethoff finished 12th in the 100-fly
Sam Crowell took the top spot in the B heat of the 100-backstroke for the Mustangs.
Fluvanna County takes 12th in Group 3A
Fluvanna’s contingent of swimmers had a solid meet at the Group 3A championships as the Flucos participated in that group before for the first time after being a 4A squad the last two seasons.
Caylyn McNaul took sixth in the 100-breast for the Flucos as the sophomore looked comfortable in her second trip to the state meet.
“I definitely was more relaxed then (when I was) having that first experience,” McNaul said.
Stephanie Nardone also had a solid meet, taking 10th in the 200-IM and seventh in the 100-fly. She also swam a leg of the ninth-place 200-free relay team. The Flucos’ 200-free relay team cut two seconds off their time.
“We’ve definitely built things up, especially with people doing well recently,” McNaul said.
The boys 200-free relay team for the Flucos also took ninth, chopping nearly four seconds off their seed time.
