No matter how you win a state title as a team, it feels pretty good. But when you do it with depth, when a bunch of different student athletes contribute without one star dominating, it’s particularly special.
That’s what Albemarle’s girls swim team unleashed at the Group 5A championships Saturday night, winning the program’s second-straight state championship without a single individual event champion. The Patriots scored 251 points, outpacing Atlee’s 229 points to win the title.
Albemarle’s relays were strong, with the 200-free group leading the way with a runner-up finish. The 200-medley quartet got the night started with a fourth place while the 400-free took fifth to finish the night.
In between there were a lot of rock solid performances. Maggie Woods was third in the 100-free and then fourth in the 100-back. In each of those events the Patriots flashed some depth too, with Maren Weathersby in ninth and Emma Lockman in 10th in the backstroke while Abby Wuensch was 12th and Grace Farmar was 14th in the 100-free.
Lockman posted a fourth in the 50-free too, while Wuensch was 11th and Farmer 13th in the same event.
Jeanette Yan also posted a fair of strong finishes, taking seventh in the 100-fly and eight in the 200-free. Katherine Pajewski finished 12th in both the 200-free and 500-free. Madison Noga took sixth in that 500-free and also went ninth in the 100-fly. Megan Jones was sixth in the 100-breast while Beth Kelly was 13th in the same event and also notched a 15th in the 200-IM.
Ashley Huang and Rachel Wang went 14th and 15th respectively in the 100-fly.
Also in the Group 5A girls meet, Orange County’s Alex Neilan took eighth in the 200-IM while Caroline Marquis was 12th in the 100-breast.
On the boys side, Albemarle’s squad put together a fifth place finish behind champion Thomas Jefferson, led by a pair of strong relay finishes. The Patriots’ third place in the 200-medley relay and sixth in the 400-free relay.
Jonathan Robbins had a big night with two third place finishes. The first came in the 200-free, the second in the 500-free. In both those races, Caleb Smith also scored, going ninth in the 200-free and 12th in the 500-free.
Hogan Harper finished fourth in the 200-IM and eighth in the 100-fly for a strong outing. Nick Pease and Jeffrey Leckrone rounded out the scoring, with Pease fifth in the 100-back and Leckrone fourth in the 100-breast.
