When swimmers Walker Davis and Tyce Winter lock up, it’s a pure, two-athlete distillation of the Western Albemarle and Albemarle rivalry. Two of the area’s absolute best doing battle, making each other a little better every time, demanding a little more out of each other every time they meet — iron sharpening iron.
“It’s fun but it’s kind of stressful because I don’t know if he’s going to win, I don’t know if I’m going to win,” Davis said. “It’s good to keep that competitive swimming going though because that’s what gets you good times.”
Albemarle’s Davis outdueled Winter in a couple of epic battles, unleashing a scorching 20.57 in the 50-free to hold off Winter before ripping off another electric time, this time a 46.23 in the 100-free. Davis’ sterling performance, that also included legs of the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relay teams that won event titles helped boost the Patriots to a 10-point victory in the hotly contested team meet.
“The Albemarle/Western rivalry is never going to die and it’s always competitive when we’re swimming against them,” Winter said. “Walker had a great meet, he really pulled through for his team.”
Albemarle won the Ben Hair title with 368 team points to the Warriors 358 with those two relay wins giving the Patriots an edge. Western won the 200 free relay and the Warriors’ depth presented some challenges for Albemarle. But the Patriots got huge swims from Teddy Cross in the 100-yard backstroke where he picked up a win, Charlie Cross who won the 100-breaststroke and took third in the 200 IM, Victor Valovalo who grabbed third in both the 100-free and 50-free races, Gustavo Teixeira who took third in the 100 back and 100 fly and Ryan Katstra in the 500 free where he took third and the 200 free where he grabbed sixth. Most of those swimmers also swam critical legs on the two relay wins and the runner-up 200-free relay squad.
“It felt like it was a lot of bringing up everyone as a team (tonight),” Davis said. “Relays really help exemplify that and help get everyone going.”
The Patriots are built for a big season this year on the boys side in particular with Davis at the top end and that host of top notch swimmers following him. Matching Western’s usual intense energy was also a particularly good sign for the Patriots.
Western’s Noah Hargrove put together a championship effort that rivaled Davis’ too, winning both the 200-IM and 100-fly while swimming on the 200 medley team that picked up a relay win. Unlike Davis who seemed to benefit from Winter’s presence pushing him to new heights, Hargrove won the 200 IM without a qualifying time, swimming essentially by himself in an early heat while laying down a huge 1:53.89 to win the event by nearly three full seconds.
“You know you’ve got to put down a time for the guys in the last heat but when you’re by yourself you have to funnel your energy,” Hargrove said. “You’re really in it to kind of push yourself and see how far you can go.”
The Warriors, who graduated a serious group of talent from the 2019 state championship team, got a boost from its youngest swimmers, a group that will need to develop quickly for the Warriors to repeat at that level. Winter, for his part, was impressed by what that group did on their first big stage of their career.
“It’s a different team than last year and this was the first time that a lot of these younger kids had been put into a situation where it’s (time to) step up,” Winter said. “I was really impressed with everybody, it’s great to see young kids swim so well.”
Winter’s runner-up finishes in the 50 and 100-free races were a huge boost to the Warriors’ effort and he and Hargrove combined with Sam Johnson and Peyton Wray to win the 200 free relay. Johnson took second in the 200 free and fourth in the 100 fly, Wray took fifth in the 100-back and sixth in the 50-free, Andrew Holzwarth fifth in the 100 free and seventh in the 100 back and Matthew Heilman took third in the 100 breast. Anthony Garono was the 500-free runner-up and Jack Smith took fourth in that race. Western also had a runner-up finish in the 200 free relay and a fourth in the 400-free race to finish the meet.
Woodberry Forest finished fourth in the meet behind third place Monacan with a huge effort by Jack Stelter setting the pace. Stetler won the 200-free and 500-free individual races and boosted the Tigers with legs on the runner-up 400 free relay and fourth place 200 medley relay team. The Tigers’ Kyle Floyd was the 200 IM runner-up behind Hargrove.
Fluvanna placed fifth as a team in the overall scoring, with Hunter Strickland’s fifth in the 200 IM and sixth in the 100 free leading the charge. Augustus Jones took fifth in the 100 fly for the Flucos.
STAB’s Vijay Chhabra also had a strong night, taking third in the 200 free and second in the 100-breast. The Saints’ Zach Ashby took second in the 100 backstroke
