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Hitting the water

A false start wiped it off the books, but Western Albemarle’s Remedy Rule unleashed an incredible final leg in the girls 400 relay, closing a half pool gap during her swim, highlighted by a strong final turn and a startlingly quick 25 meters.

It was a fantastic individual performance on a night full of them, but of course, it didn’t count because of the false start on an earlier leg.

That didn’t matter much though, because even with a disqualification, Rule and her freshman sister Brazil Rule piled up a ton of points with two individual first places each to help lead the Warriors to the Ben Hair Memorial Swim and Dive Meet girls title.

Western’s 429-point total narrowly outpaced a loaded Albemarle squad that finished with 406.5 points.

“It’s a really big confidence boost for the kids—I think it brought the team together today,” said Western Albemarle co-head coach Dan Bledsoe. “You could see it at the end of the lane (during the 400-free relay) with the kids cheering everybody on — our kids were fired up. They take this responsibility and the tradition we’ve developed here seriously and that’s nice to see.”

On the boys side, it was all Albemarle as the Patriots rolled with 410.5 points, well outpacing second place Western’s 248 points. Monticello checked in at third with 191 points.

“The boys did a great job and they looked solid right from the get-go,” said Albemarle coach Jake Shrum. “What really helps is when you have those one or two guys that have a great swim and it automatically makes everyone think something good is going to happen. Mike (Pajewski) did a good job getting a regional cut right off the bat in the 200-freestyle and everything just falls into place from there.”

While Albemarle dominated the boys meet, the night actually started with Miles Rodi, Keenan Sochar, Ryan Mitchell and Buddy Anderson snagging a win in the 200-yard medley relay. Tyler Gimple (who also won the 500-free) from St. Anne’s-Belfield and Western’s Alex Rayle (who also won the 100-back) followed Monticello’s win with event titles while the Patriots stacked up points just behind those standouts, and that became a theme of the night as Albemarle leaned on its depth rather than event wins to get the job done. Behind Gimple and Mitchell’s second place finish in the 200 free, Albemarle’s Jacob Lescault, Mike Pajewski and Reece Echelberger took third, fourth and fifth. The Patriots followed Rayle’s win in the 200-IM with Sean Telford, Hogan Harper and Jack Robbins going 2/3/4. Matt Lockman won the 50-free for the Patriots and Colin Hensien took third while Sean McPhillips came in fourth.

Lockman also won the 100-free while Pajewski, McPhillips and Matthew Porter took third through fifth.

The Patriots cemented the win with several other strong finishes in the middle of the pack and 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relay championships.

Eli Hostelege’s 100-yard breaststroke title and Western’s Max Tempkin’s 100-yard butterfly victory rounded out the individual title winners in the meet.

On the girls side, Western’s top-end swimmers blazed a path to victory as the Rule sisters exploded with Brazil Rule winning the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle races in her first large meet as a Western swimmer. She led the way for a legion of young Western swimmers that rose to the occasion like Savannah Scarborough and Colleen Higgins.

“You never know what the freshmen are going to do, how are they going to respond to their first really big meet?,” Bledsoe said. “From top to bottom the kids stepped up and swam well. Lexi Campbell swam incredibly well, she’s starting to fulfill her potential as a swimmer. Becca Moriconi is another kid who sat out last year and scored really well for us today.”

Remedy Rule, the sophomore who qualified for the Olympic Trials last summer, won the 100-backstroke and 200-IM. Both Rule sisters swam on winning relays, with the Warriors winning the 200-medley and 200-free races before getting disqualified from the final race. Elsa Strickland picked up a win in the 50-free for the Warriors while Katherine Sheppard’s diving victory earlier in the week also helped Western pile up points.

Like the boys team, Albemarle’s depth helped it keep pace with Western. In the 200-free for example, Corie Morton, Jeanette Yan and Katie Pajewski took second through fourth in the event behind Brazil Rule.

Hannah Harper won the 100-fly while Maggie Woods took the 100-free title. Woods also had a second place finish in the 100-back while Harper finished second in the 200-IM.

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