CARY, N.C. – The Pine Lake Prep women dominated the 1A/2A Women’s Swimming & Diving Championship, as the team won two of the three relays on the day to win the school’s second straight state championship in the sport. On the men’s side Washington cruised to their second straight championship by winning two of the three relays as well.
Thomas Hamlet was the meet’s Most Outstanding Performer for the men as the Bishop McGuinness sophomore captured first place in the 100 Butterfly (:51.35) and the 100 Backstroke (:50.66). The Women’s Most Outstanding Performer award went to Emme Nelson from Community School of Davidson who won the 200 Individual Medley (2:03.98) and the 100 Breaststroke (1:09.94).
The Pine Lake Prep women got an individual victory from Allyson Accordino as she completed the 50 Freestyle in :23.80 seconds. Accordino also finished second in the 100 Freestyle in a time of :51.60 seconds, just .27 seconds behind first place Alexandria Baker from Lincoln Charter. Pride junior diver Nicole Yeakley finished second in the 1 meter diving event.
Accordino led off the victorious 200 Free Relay team, combining with Maddie Marsh, Kensley Rasbornik and Rose Auten to post a time of 1:39.96 out-touching Lincoln Charter. Accordino then anchored the winning 400 Free Relay team as freshman Rachel Daly joined with her, Marsh and Rasbornik to take the event by more than a three second margin posting 3:39.38.
Carrboro diver Claire McDaniels won the 1 meter diving event posting a classification record score of 475.45 and breaking a two-year record held by Adyson Lowe from Lake Norman Charter set in 2015. On the men’s side, Pine Lake Prep diver Nick Garberina also posted a classification record score of 553.30, breaking his own record from a season ago.
Washington jumped out to an early lead grabbing a victory in the first two events of the meet. The Pam Pack 200 Medley Relay (1:38.15) won as freshman Patrick Lovenberg teamed with three seniors, Kevin Andrews, A.J. Howard and Justin Clark to take the event in a comfortable margin of more than four seconds over Bishop McGuinness. Andrews followed that up in the next event with a 200 Freestyle victory as he touched in 1:41.59.
The Pam Pack got another victory in the meet’s final event, the 400 Free Relay, posting a time of 3:17.29 as Andrews led the team off with sophomore Hodges Tubaugh, senior Tony Lovenberg and Howard rounding out the 3:17.29 time. Howard also finished third in the 50 Freestyle (:22.26) behind Cameron Harding from East Carteret and Jack Coltrane from Southwest Edgecombe. Howard also scored a third place finish in the 100 Butterfly in a time of :52.26.
Andrews gave Washington their best non-first place finish of the day as the senior touched in :51.16 in the 100 Backstroke claiming second place behind Hamlet from Bishop McGuinness.
Ethan Knorr joined Hamlet as the only other double individual winner on the men’s side, claiming the 200 Individual Medley in 1:53.83 and the 500 Freestyle in 4:33.98. Alexandria Baker from Lincoln Charter was the lone other double winner with M.O.P. Nelson. Baker won the 100 Butterfly in :55.43 seconds and then won the next event, the 100 Freestyle in :51.33 seconds.
The Women’s Sportsmanship award winners were Lindsey Allison from Pine Lake Prep and Alicia Biel from Raleigh Charter. The Men’s Sportsmanship award winners were A.J. Howard from Washington and Ethan Loveless from Croatan.
