Everyone in the Western Albemarle’s girls swim camp expected it to be a tight one. Even with a 22-0 lead from the diving competition the night before, Western knew it should be in for a dogfight with Briar Woods.
But something was different Saturday morning at Fork Union’s Aquatic Center before the Region II Championships.
“They were really loose and frisky — they were playing ‘punch’ with each other and with us,” said Western coach Dan Bledsoe. “When we saw them that way, we knew it was going to be good.”
The first two events of the day took that readiness and excitement to a new level. Western won the 200-meter medley relay when Natalie Cronk erased a Briar Woods lead, then Cronk jumped back in the pool for the 200-meter freestyle. She led wire-to-wire against Briar Woods’ Alli Haufler, who outpaced Cronk at the 2010 Group AA meet, to win the event. On top of that, sophomore Lexi Campbell sped to an eighth place finish as Western scored twice.
From there, the Warriors were off and running, piling up 163 points to outpace Briar Woods’ 120-point output to win the Region II title.
“We knew if we could win the 200-medley relay that could set the tone for the entire meet — that’s what we tried to do,” said Western’s Emma McKinley.
Western won all three relays, and after closing out the meet with the 400-meter freestyle relay, the Warriors’ celebration was about as muted as a Region championship can be.
“I think we were not celebrating as much because we were just so tired,” McKinley said. “(Our races) were a little close together for some of us.”
They’d also survived some of the toughest competition the state can offer. Region II is traditionally a proving ground for the Group AA meet.
“Girls that we have that finished 10th and 11th (in Region II) would’ve been top six in Region IV,” Bledsoe said. “In the years previous, the cuts for this region have been tougher than the state cuts.”
Cronk, the Jefferson District swimmer of the year, finished with four total victories, two as part of the 200 medley and 400-meter freestyle relays and two wins in the 200-free and 100-free. Emma McKinley had much the same kind of outing, with the two relay wins and victory in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:35.08, winning by over 10 seconds. She also logged a third place in the 100-meter butterfly. Seana Acker joined McKinley and Cronk on the 200-medley and 400-free relay teams and picked up a runner-up spot in the 200-meter individual medley. Acker had a fast finish to her day with a third in 100-meter breaststroke immediately before swimming the first leg of the 400 relay. While the meet was well in hand before that final relay, Western’s girls maintained the same hard-nosed attack going into the event.
“It was kind of a relief—we went into it behind (in the seed time) and it was our goal to come out on top,” Acker said.
The other member of that relay along with Acker, Cronk and McKinley was Elsa Strickland, a sophomore who finished fifth in the 100-free and 50-free. Strickland was on the 200-free relay title-winning group too.
Western and Briar Woods outpaced the rest of the field by a significant margin, with Briar Woods’ second place total of 120 nearly doubling third place Brentsville’s 68 points. Two other local squads finished in the top 10 on the girls side with Charlottesville taking fourth and Fluvanna grabbing sixth place.
On the boys side, Orange took fourth as Brentsville held off Broad Run for the title.
Several local swimmers outside the Western girls won individual Region II titles, starting with Charlottesville’s Brodde Lamb winning the 200-IM by holding off Acker. Lamb also placed second in the 100-fly. Fluvanna County’s Chelsea Tomko won the 50-free while three Western swimmers scored in that event. Orange County’s Justin Barden’s 100-backstroke win and Ryan Mitchell’s impressive victory in the 100-breaststroke rounded out the local champions. Mitchell won despite the fact that his seed time put him in the far lane of the pool. He also finished second in the 200-freestyle.
Other solid performances included CHS’s Dania Jazouli finishing fourth in the 400-free, Western’s Alex Rayle finishing third in the 400, Brian Snow of Monroe grabbing third in the 100-backstroke.
Orange County’s Alex Montes de Oca finished second in the 100-fly, fourth in the 200-free and swam a leg of Orange’s second place 200-meter medley relay team.
The Group AA state meet is slated to start February 24 and run through February 26.
