CARY, N.C – Marvin Ridge women opened the 3A Swimming and Diving State Championship meet with a huge win in the Women’s 200 Medley Relay and didn’t look back on their way to a fourth straight state championship. The Mavericks men’s team made things a little more interesting than their female counterparts, but not much more, as the Maverick men won two of the three relay events on their way to the Men’s first state championship in the sport in school history.
Caroline Hauder was a star for the Maverick Women, leading off the 200 Medley Relay team including Mary Agnes Rothenberger, Katie Rivers and Madeline Tessin as the team posted a 1:46.60, winning by more than a second over Cox Mill. Hauder went on to win the next two events, the 200 Freestyle (1:48.52) and the 200 Individual Medley (2:01.52) as she was named the meet M.V.P.
Hauder also led off for the second place 400 Free Relay team of Sydney Geada, Kate Marshall and VanNote as the Mavericks (3:31.52) were just out-touched by Weddington’s team of Maddy Flickinger, Kelsey Tolchin, Amelia Kudela and Katie Corbi (3:31.37).
The men’s M.V.P. was Noah Henderson from Wetern Alamance as he won the 50 Freestyle, touching in :20.76 seconds and the 100 Butterfly in :48.96 seconds.
In the women’s team event, Marvin Ridge’s depth played a huge role helping them amass an early advantage and sustain that throughout the meet. The Mavericks rolled past second place Weddington 387-217.
The Mavericks women, in addition to the standout performances by Hauder, got a third place finish from Ellie VanNote in the 200 Free (1:52.49), finishing behing Anna Durak from Hickory (1:50.37) and her teammate Hauder. VanNote went on to win the 100 Butterfly in :55.22 seconds. Diver Nikki Canale won the 1-meter diving event for the third year in a row, scoring 492.90. Rothenberger finished third in the 100 Breaststroke, finishing in 1:06.65 behind event-winner Virginia Gilliland from Western Guilford (1:05.89) and Isabella Gaskey from Central Cabarrus (1:06.60).
On the men’s side, the overall team competition was much tighter as Marvin Ridge held off a hard charge from the three time defending state champions Chapel Hill. At the end of the day Marvin Ridge held a 328.5-297 win over the Tigers.
The first men’s event of the day was indicative of how close these two would be as Marvin Ridge and Chapel Hill’s 200 Medley Relay teams touched with identical 1:37.34 times, good enough for a tie for second behind the Northern Guilford team of Preston Forst, Jeremy Lalumondier, Jonathan Wachendorfer and Bryan Hill who set a new 3A meet record of 1:35.51 in the event.
Boyd Poelke, a freshman at Marvin Ridge, finished second in the 50 Freestyle posting a finals time of :21.35 seconds, just behind event winner and meet M.V.P. Henderson. In the 100 Butterfly the Mavericks also got a second place finish behind Henderson as Peter Dwyer posted a :50.43 time to claim second and Poelke nabbed third with a :50.54.
Concord’s Robbie Epler claimed first in the 100 Freestyle, posting a time of :46.35 and beating Marvin Ridge’s Jeffrey Murray who was second in :46.75 seconds.
The Mavericks claimed the final two relays of the event to extend a narrow lead. The 200 Free Relay team of Murray, Dwyer, Charles Rothenberger and Poelke who set a new 3A meet record with a time of 1:26.46, just ahead of Northern Guilford’s team of Wachendorfer, Hill, Ben Snider and Forst who also eclipsed the previous 3A meet record by touching in 1:26.93.
The Mavericks went on to claim the 400 Free Relay in a 3A meet record time of 3:11.16 as Murray led off with a :47.08 split, Nate Utesch and Adam Fisher followed that up with solid legs of their own and Dwyer brought home the championship with a :47.00 second split in the final leg to set the new mark.
