CARY — Elkin High School swim team competed last weekend at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary at the 1A/2A NCHSAA State Championship Meet. The Elks competed with a team of 6 females and 8 males. The Lady Elks placed as the top public high school in the competition, finishing in 5th place overall out of 48 participating schools and behind four preparatory and charter schools. The men’s team finished in 14th place overall, out of 43 participating schools and was the fourth top public high school, just 3 points behind neighboring 2A East Surry High School.
State competition is an all-day marathon event with preliminary swims in the morning, a mid-day break, and then final swims in the evening. Preliminary swims include 3 heats of 8 swimmers, the top 24 qualifiers in the state, competing. The top 16 finishers then move on to final swims in the evening. All six of Elkin’s relay teams qualified for competition and performed well enough during preliminary swims to make final swims in the evening session. Elkin also had five swimmers qualify for individual competition with four of them moving on to the final competition, as well as one swimmer in the 500-yard freestyle event, which, due to its length, only swims one final competition.
The Lady Elks kicked off the final competition in the 200-yard medley relay event, where each swimmer swims a different stroke. Senior Sophie Welborn, swimming backstroke, put her team in the first place position at the end of her leg with a 27.46 time. Freshman Sarika Hatcher posted a 36.51 time with her breaststroke portion of the relay. Senior Morgan Wiles also posted the fastest butterfly time of the competition with a 25.64, keeping the team in the front of the pack. Freshman Mya Brown finished strong, swimming freestyle with a time of 28.49. The ladies finished in 5th place overall with a time of 1:58.10, just 0.11 seconds behind the fourth place team, Seaforth, who earned a medal and a trip to the podium with a time of 1:57.99.
For the men, sophomore Webb Snyder gave the Elks a strong start with a time of 26.63 in the backstroke portion of the swim, putting the Elks in first place for their heat. Senior Luke McComb kept the Elks on top as he posted a 30.20 with his breaststroke leg. Senior Troy Snow grew the lead for his team as he swam butterfly with a time of 24.78. Sophomore Evan Baker brought home the heat win with his freestyle swim of 25.11. The Elks finished with the 7th best time overall, 1:46.72, cutting nearly 4 seconds from their morning preliminary time and giving them their best team finish of the day.
In individual competition, Sophie Welborn represented the Elks in the fast and furious 50-yard freestyle event. Welborn, who has previously swam this event twice, placed 2nd overall as a freshman with a time of 24.63, and 3rd overall as a sophomore with a time of 24.46. Last year she switched things up and competed in the 100-yard freestyle event and placed 2nd overall with a time of 52.85. During this, her final year of competition, Welborn finished in 2nd place overall with her best personal time ever of 23.97, making her fourth and final trip to the podium in as many years to receive an individual event medal. Welborn finished just 0.57 seconds behind Alexandra Tysinger of Burns High School, who was named Most Outstanding Swimmer of the competition.
Welborn’s teammate and close friend, senior Morgan Wiles, represented the Elks in the 100-yard butterfly event. Wiles found herself in the same position as Welborn, seeded second in the event. Wiles, who was swimming this event for the fourth straight year, has previously placed 3rd her freshman year with a time of 58.19 and then in 2nd place both her sophomore and junior years with times of 58.04 and 57.86. For her final swim of this event, Wiles also finished in 2nd place overall with her best personal time ever of 57.63, also making her fourth and final trip to the podium in as many years to receive an individual event medal in the same event. Wiles finished just 0.21 seconds behind Sydney Burlleigh of Seaforth High School, who took the gold medal in this event. Both Welborn and Wiles opted to compete in all three team relay events in lieu of competing in a second individual event.
Freshman Sarika Hatcher also swam in the 100-yard butterfly preliminary event. Hatcher finished in 19th place overall with a time of 1:07.85.
The men were represented by senior Troy Snow in the 100-yard freestyle event. Snow has previously swam the 50-yard freestyle event, finishing in 7th place his sophomore year with a time of 22.77 and 11th place overall his junior year with a time of 22.85. Snow switched up to the 100-yard freestyle event for his senior year and finished 8th overall with a time of 50.97.
Swimming in the brutal 500-yard freestyle event was freshman Michael Tragone. Because of the length of this event, there are no preliminary swims, only final heats, with part of the heats being swam in the morning session and part of the heats being swam during the evening session. Tragone, swimming in his first ever state meet, swam during the morning session and posted a time of 5:57.81 finishing in 24th place overall.
In perhaps the most exciting race of the day for the Lady Elks, the 200-yard freestyle relay event, the Elks cut nearly 4 seconds to claim a 3rd place finish overall. Morgan Wiles (25.50) gave the Elks a great start touching the wall in first place. Elissa Dickerson (28.48) and Sarika Hatcher (27.41) held the Elks steady but finished their legs of the relay with the team in sixth place. Sophie Welborn (23.58) with a frenzied finish, passed three other swimmers to lead her crew on their first team trip to the podium with a time of 1:44.97, just missing the 2nd place finish as Lincoln Charter out touched the Elks with a time of 1:44.83.
Swimming for the men in the 200-yard freestyle event, Troy Snow (23.21), Luke McComb (24.80), freshman Caleb White (26.26) and Webb Snyder (22.82) finished in 12th place overall with a time of 1:37.09.
In individual swim, Webb Snyder swam in the 100-yard backstroke event. Snyder participated in the same event his freshman year, claiming a 23rd place finish with a time of 1:03.30. After a year of much work on the stroke, Snyder grabbed a 7th place finish overall with a much improved time of 56.59, a personal best time for the sophomore.
Competition wrapped up with the 400-yard freestyle relay event. The Lady Elks, who finished in 5th place during preliminary swims, cut a staggering 5.67 seconds during the final swims to finish in 4th place overall with a time of 3:53.34 to earn their second team trip to the podium. Morgan Wiles (56.09) led off the relay and put the team in a strong position. Junior Paloma Oliveri (1:02.33) and Sarika Hatcher (1:02.42) kept things steady with the middle legs of the race. Sophie Welborn (52.50), the anchor of the team, posted a frantic swim to pass at least a couple of teams to bring home the 4th place finish for the Elks.
Swimming for the men, Luke McComb (56.85), Caleb White (56.46), Webb Snyder (51.97) and Troy Snow (51.14) managed to drop 0.33 seconds to finish in 13th place overall with a time of 3:36.22.
Strong swim finishes are an Elkin High School tradition and this year’s teams worked hard to maintain the high standards that have become custom for EHS. Head coach Oz Prim remarked, “I am just thankful for all of our swimmers. We had 14 swimmers to participate at the state meet and that is the most we have ever had to compete at this level at once. I hope that all of our swimmers have great memories from our season.”
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