LONG STREAKS CONTINUE IN NCHSAASTATE 3-A SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS
CARY — Two long streaks continued for Charlotte Catholic and Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons in the All American Swim Supply-North Carolina High School Athletic Association state 3-A swimming and diving championships at the Triangle Aquatic Center on Saturday.
Charlotte Catholic won its 10th consecutive NCHSAA swimming and diving women’s team championship and its sixth in a row at the 3-A level, while Cardinal Gibbons captured its fourth straight men’s state crown and second straight in the 3-A classification.
In the men’s meet, Cardinal Gibbons scored 261 points to 216 for runner-up Charlotte Catholic. Chapel Hill was third at 201, followed by Concord Jay Robinson with 162 and Waxhaw Marvin Ridge at 149. There were 39 schools tallying points in the meet.
West Carteret’s Bobby Bittner, a double winner in the 100 butterfly and the 100 backstroke, earned the Most Outstanding Swimmer award in the men’s meet.
Hickory senior Graham Williams was also a double winner, taking first place both the 200 and 500 free.
Catholic rolled to victory in the women’s competition with a whopping 417, well ahead of second-place Marvin Ridge at 296 and third-place Chapel Hill with 266. Waynesville Tuscola (183) was fourth and Cardinal Gibbons (179) fifth. A total of 32 schools scored in the meet.
Several records were broken in the women’s meet. Among them, sophomore Katy Stringfield of Waynesville Tuscola smashed a pair of 16-year old 3-A records held by Chase’s Wendy Henson. Stringfield broke the 200 freestyle mark by more than half a second with a time of 1:50.45, and she also established a new 500 free mark. She was named the meet’s Most Outstanding Swimmer.
Freshman Lauren Rhodes of Charlotte Catholic set a new 3-A mark in the 50 free, and Tuscola senior Victoria Oslund broke her own one-year-old 3-A mark in the 100 fly.
Ashlyn Koletic of Charlotte Catholic established a new state 3-A record in the 100 free by just .04 of a second, eclipsing a record set by Henson which had stood since 1993.
Weddington’s Katherine Plevka won two events, taking the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke.
(COMPLETE RESULTS MAY BE FOUND BY CLICKING ON THE CHAMPIONSHIP RESULT LINK ON THE FRONT PAGE AND THEN GOING TO SWIMMING, 2011 RESULTS)
