The Christiansburg Aquatic Center was the site for region swim championships this week. The Glenvar girls won the Region 2C championship on Monday and Salem was swimming in the Region 4D meet on Tuesday.
The swimming Highlanders will send a team of eight girls swimming 13 individual events and all three relays to the State Championship next week in Richmond. The boys had one individual swimmer qualify and one relay team.
The first event of the evening was the boys’ medley relay. Cooper Campbell, Kaid Fuhrman, Parker Hall and Derrick Hall set the tone for the evening with their state qualifying time finishing 4th.
Next came the girls medley relay. Reese Dunkenberger, Isabelle Pope, Adrianna Hall and Claire Griffith won the event finishing more than two seconds ahead of a very talented George Wythe team. Their time of 2:00.51 is the fastest 2A time in the state this year that I can find.
Next, Hall won the 200 freestyle, lowering her personal record by over five seconds with a time of 2:09.56. Delaney Eller finished fourth also qualifying for states.
In the girls 200 individual medley Carly Wilkes swam a smooth race and finished second while Pope swam a new personal record time and finished fifth. Both qualified for states.
Griffith won the girls’ 50 yard freestyle in a seasons best time of 25.75, the second fastest time in Glenvar history. First year swimmer Meghan Thompson finished fifth and qualified for states.
Eller swam a personal record time in the 100 butterfly finishing 5th, qualifying for states. Defending state champion Dunkenberger won the 100 freestyle with her seasons best time and Wilkes also swam a seasons best finishing fifth.
Hall and Griffith both set season best times in the 500 freestyle finishing second and third. Both are state qualified in the event.
The girls 200 freestyle relay was the event of the night. The girls’ team was nearly two second underdogs to the powerful George Wythe team. At the end of the race the scoreboard showed Glenvar 1:50.26 – George Wythe 1:50.42. Griffith, Eller, Wilkes and Dunkenberger won by the blink of an eye.
Dunkenberger also won the 100 backstroke and again will swim in the state championship where she was last year’s runner-up. Cooper Campbell finished fourth in the boys 100 backstroke and will swim at states.
Pope set a new personal record in the 100 breaststroke, finishing 2nd. Isabelle qualifies for the state championship.
The girls 400 freestyle relay team of Wilkes, Alyssa Meadows, Eller and Hall closed out the meet with a win.
The top three scores for the girls were: Glenvar 138, Radford 89 and George Wythe 81. There were 13 schools participating.
The boys put up 27 points and finished sixth. Radford was the boys’ team winner.
Salem was scheduled to swim Tuesday, but results were too late for publication. The Spartans took 30 swimmers to the regional. Look for results in next week’s edition.
The state Class 2 meet is February 20 and the Class 4 state meet is February 22nd in Richmond at the Swim RVA pool.
“It will be the biggest states for SHS in its history if my swimmers will show up and swim,” said Salem coach Marianne Fleenor.
