MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It was a night of broken records and local swimmers living up to their hype in University and Morgantown’s senior night season debuts at the Mylan Park Aquatic Center. Of the two, however, UHS had the most to be happy about.
“We had fantastic stuff happening out there,” UHS coach Joanna White said. “We had some records broken today, Mia Rice and Frankie McCutchan both got records.”
McCutchan shattered the school’s 100 breaststroke record in 1:04.88, usurping the former record from 1998-99 at 1:09. He also won the 200 free, though not breaking a record, in 1:47. Rice, however, secured the school record in the girls’ 200 freestyle with her first-place 2:00.96 finish.
“He didn’t take it off the board, he crushed it,” White said. “We can now say we know all the swimmers on our record board. That’s awesome. It’s been a goal I’ve been putting in his ear for a long time so I’m really glad that happened. And Mia, my goodness, it’s fantastic all the work she did. Honest to goodness, all our swimmers had, even if they didn’t have a record, they had their own, personal records. There are still some in disbelief of their times.”
To open the season in such fashion, this season, in particular, couldn’t be much better for the small Hawks team that lost swimmers after the halt to practices in late 2020. To White, it shows the resiliency her team has. Her seniors have been crucial in this process, too.
“With the proper support system, they have truly shown their resilience,” White said. “The support within the team, they’re really supporting each other. Resilience and bonding have been fantastic. They [the seniors] have been leaders in their own way. We have seen leadership where they adopted younger swimmers to help and encourage them, we’ve seen leaders where they’re really strong in their strokes and they want to help. It’s worked out well where our seniors excel in each stroke so we can break them up and have them help each group.”
On the Morgantown side, coming into the season, many eyes were on sophomore Caroline Riggs. A freshman state title winner and crucial piece of the Morgantown girls’ team, her two individual wins in the 200 IM (2:06) and 100 fly (57.87) helped the Mohigans greatly. This is despite Wednesday’s meet being only her second in over a year.
“It was fun to start racing other people again,” Riggs said. “I thought it went well. I thought the team did well. Everyone on the team swam fast, so I’m excited to see what we do the rest of the season and hopefully place well at states.”
Although facing a long offseason, Riggs made the most of it before she leaped into the competition pool again.
“I was always in the water,” she said. “The pool has been open since June so I’ve been able to swim since then. Even though it hasn’t been with a team, which has made it a lot harder, I’ve been able to stay in the water and am in good shape now.”
Does she feel any pressure, though, coming off her big freshman year?
“There’s definitely some pressure, but I try not to focus on it. I just come out to have fun, especially at a high school meet, so I try to focus on that aspect of it,” she said.
Other key wins for the MHS girls’ team included Delaney Householder in the 100 free (56.90) and the girls’ 200 free A team comprised of Irina Stanescu, Riggs, Householder and Lillian Linscheid (1:44.53).
Other than Rice’s record-breaking finish, UHS took the top spots in the 50 free (Jenna Noe, 35.15) and 500 free (Elizabeth Warner, 6:30).
The MHS and UHS boys teams competed well, too.
For MHS, the boys’ 200-yard medley relay A team made up of Carter Redelman, Gavin Fragale, Preston Householder and Caleb Seol opened the meet with a win at 1:54, Redelman took first in the 200 yard IM (2:14), Seol won the 50 free (25.25) and Householder won the 500 free (5:20).
Aside from McCutchan’s big wins, University’s boys claimed the 100 butterfly (Zach Ribas, 59.19).
Team results were not announced at the conclusion of the meet.
Results
Girls’ 200 medley relay: Buckhannon-Upshur A, 1:56; Morgantown A, 1:57; University A, 2:11; MHS B 2:25;
Boys 200 medley relay: MHS A, 1:54; UHS A, 2:03.
Girls 200 free: Mia Rice, 2:00; Lillian Linscheid, 2:05; Rainey Block, 2:21
Boys 200 free: Frank McCutchan, 1:47; Preston Bennett, 1:49; Lake Embrey, 2:03
Girls 200 IM: Caroline Riggs, 2:06; Delaney Householder, 2:18; Alayna Whitehair, 2:22
Boys 200 IM: Carter Redelman, 2:14; Preston Householder, 2:24
Girls 50 free: Cadence Vincent, 23:49; Irina Stanescu, 26.64; McKenzie Reynolds, 28.46
Boys 50 free: Caleb Seol, 25:25; Gavin Fragale, 25.74; Owen Caynor, 27.50
Girls 100 fly: Riggs, 57.87; Cameron Zuliani, 1:01; Whitehair, 1:05
Boys 100 fly: Zach Ribas, 59.19; Rafael Martinez, 1:15
Girls 100 free: Householder, 56.90; Stanescu, 58.68; Reynolds, 1:04
Boys 100 free: Sam Squires, 56.44; Ribas, 58.02; Reis Leonard, 59.28
Girls 500 free: Elizabeth Warner, 6:30; Jacquelynn Papez, 7:45
Boys 500 free: Householder, 5:20; Embrey, 5:40
Girls 200 free relay: MHS A, 1:44; UHS A, 1:59; MHS B, 2:07; UHS B, 2;27
Boys 200 free relay: BU A, 1:42; MHS A, 1:43; UHS A, 1:46; MHS B, 1:52
Girls 100 back: Vincent, 57.39; Linscheid, 1:07; Victoria Maumbe, 1:09
Boys 100 back: Preston Bennett, 58.14; Redelman, 1:02; Leonard, 1:13
Girls 100 breaststroke: Zuliani, 1:12; Rice, 1:13; Emily Stanton, 1:27
Boys 100 breast: McCutchan, 1:04; Squires, 1:11; Fragale, 1:12
Girls 400 free relay: BU A, 3:55; MHS A, 4:49; UHS A, 5:44
Boys 400 free relay; BU A, 4:03; MHS A, 4:49
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