Remedy Rule will surely go on to bigger meets, bigger stages, bigger pools and bigger things. The University of Texas signee is poised to be a tremendous collegiate swimmer and a factor on the national level. But for a day, the elite swimmer that has thoroughly embraced high school swimming like few before her locally, didn’t want to think much about moving on.
“I don’t think it’s really hit me that this is the last time I’m competing with all these people,” Rule said.
When reminded that there was still dinner and travel home to come, she seemed relieved.
“See, look, I don’t have to cry yet,” Rule said.
Rule capped her high school swimming career — that is unprecedented locally — Friday by winning her sixth and seventh individual event state titles and contributing in a big way toward the goal that she surely thought was most critical — Western Albemarle girls swimming’s fifth-straight state championship.
“I think the easiest thing to say is that she’s the best student athlete to ever go through Western in my opinion,” said Western co-head coach Dan Bledsoe. “I can’t go all the way back, but this is a kid who is a 4.0 student, who carries herself the way she does in the hallways, has the respect of the faculty that she has and then goes out and does this, just dominates her field and shes done it since she was a freshman? I don’t think we’ve had any other athlete at Western who can say the same exact thing. It’s consistent greatness.”
Rule’s seven career individual event titles are believed to tie a state record. She won titles in seven out of eight possible chances in the last four years — Friday’s came in the 100-fly and 100-back. She also set two new state records in those, both marks besting her time in prelims earlier in the day that were also new records.
“We feed off each other’s energy — cheering makes me more excited to swim my races,” Rule said. “Then when I see people when I’m behind the blocks I want to swim for myself but I also want to swim for my team.”
She was far from the only swimmer to have a huge day for the Warriors who won the title over second place Cave Spring by 97 points, 317-220. Her sister Brazil Rule was the runner-up in the 100-free and went sixth in the 200-free. She also swam the anchor leg on the title-winning 200-free relay group, combining with Morgan James, Charlotte Rumsey and Caroline Riordan for the victory. Winning a relay without Remedy Rule having to swim shows the Warriors’ depth that has helped turn them into one of the state’s swimming dynasties.
Rumsey was fifth in the 200-IM and fourth in the 100-breast. Colleen Higgins was eighth in the 200-IM and later added a third place finish in the 100-breast.
That breaststroke event showed the Warriors’ depth as well as four swimmers scored in the top 16, with Savannah Scarbrough’s sixth place finish and Elissa Simpson’s 14th rounding out the effort.
McKenna Riley kicked in a 13th in the 200-free and Julia Elder finished 15th in the 50-free, a race where Riordan took 11th. James tacked on a ninth place in the 100-free behind Brazil Rule’s runner-up performance while Brynn Acker was 11th in the 100-fly behind Remedy Rule’s title-winning swim.
The Warriors’ fifth-straight title also appears to tie a state record. Lafayette won five straight from 2004 to 2008. The Warriors will look to set a new mark in 2016 and they’ll have to do it without Remedy Rule, even if she wasn’t bothering to think about moving on right after the meet.
Western boys rise up
There are a number of teams in the VHSL that feature very few year-round swimmers. It’s just that they usually don’t finish third in the state.
“We kind of have this family atmosphere because we’ve only got one year-round swimmer on the team,” said captain Kyle Benson. “I love how we are now and wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The Warriors checked in at third in the state with a strong outing against champion Hidden Valley and runner-up Lafayette. The Warriors put together a runner-up finish in the 200-free relay in a swim that would’ve been a new state record if not for Kettle Run’s first place swim.
Aaron James did a lot of damage on his own with a pair of state runner-up finishes in the 50-free and 100-free. The depth carried the day though, like in the 50-free when AJ Donovan and Marcus Van Clief took fifth and sixth behind James’ second-place finish.
In the 100-fly, the Warriors grabbed 11th through 13th with Ian O’Donnell, Jake Paulson and Donovan swimming well. Paulson also took 12th in the 100-back, Matt Mandell went 11th in the 100-breast and Jack Vaughn took 13th in that race. Ryan Boyce was 14th in the 200-free.
Wilson Brown picked up points with a sixth place in the dive.
The Warriors finished seventh in both the 200-medley and 400-free relays.
Rounding up 3A
Monticello’s girls’ relay teams competed in all three races, going 14th in the 200-medley, 11th in the 200-free and 14th in the 400-free. In addition, Kathryn Deane scored with a 16th place in the 50-free.
Monticello’s boys also competed in each relay, led by a 10th place in the 400-free, a 12th in the 200-medley and a 12th in the 200-free. Brian Young had a strong day individually too with a ninth place in the 50-free and a 10th in the 100-free. Garrett Mooney was fifth in the dive and Sam Crowell was 13th in the 100-back.
For William Monroe, Hannah Young finished seventh in the dive.
