Draughn wins both conference team swimming titles

In the newly configured Catawba Valley Athletic 2A Conference, the two Burke County member schools have served notice they will be a force to be reckoned with in high school swimming for the foreseeable future, while a newcomer to high school swimming makes a statement.

The Draughn Wildcats dominated the CVAC conference swim meets by sweeping both girls and boys championships held at the Valdese Aquatic Club. The Wildcats' girls team scored 395 to outpace East Burke and Newton-Conover, who tied for second with 252 points each. The Draughn boys easily outpaced their competition with 420 points. East Burke finished second with 336 points followed by Newton-Conover with 272 points.

In the girls meet, Draughn won all three relay events and had three swimmers earn points in seven of the eight individual events, including four first place finishes in cruising to the win. Lauren Wallrichs led the way for the Wildcats with two individual first place finishes (200-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke) and was a part of two relay first finishes in the 200-yard individual medley and 400-yard freestyle. Na Cui won the 100-yard backstroke to go with two relay team wins and Ashley Brulet edged out East Burke's Rachel Picciano in the 50-yard freestyle to go along with two other relay wins.

"I was really proud of our girls," said Draughn girls coach Sarah Rosebrock. "We had some slow times and some really fast times. A lot of it was not being used to swimming in the morning, but our girls work extremely hard and it paid off for them."

Newton-Conover forged a tie in the last race taking second in the girl's 400-yard free relay. Both East Burke and Newton-Conover had three swimmers score points in five of the eight individual races with Newton-Conover's Ashley Nidiffer (100-yard free) and East Burke's Marianne Burris (500-yard free) each claiming wins.

"I thought both our boys and girls teams did really well," said N-C coach Kirby Overcash. "This is our second season with a swim team at Newton-Conover. This year, even with the switch to all 2A schools, we still have pretty tough competition with Draughn and East Burke with a lot of year round swimmers.

All my kids are back yard pool summer swimmers. I'm real proud of their effort. To us, this finish is very exciting and encouraging."

Bandys' Michalea Beatty won two individual heats taking both the 200-IM and the 100 butterfly, overcoming a slip up at the beginning.

"In my 200 IM I messed up," said Beatty. "My foot slipped off the block so I kind went in a little crooked but I ended up finishing it strong. My dive in the second race was a lot stronger. I added a couple of seconds as my shoulder's been bothering me."

The Draughn boys were even more dominant that their female counterparts as they swept all three relay events and took six of the eight individual events, while finishing second in the other two events. In the eight individual events, Draughn held the first and second or first and third spots in five of them.

Aaron Daves (200-yard free, 100 butterfly) and Austin Hyde (50-yard free, 100-yard free) each took first place in two individual races and as part of two relay teams, both on the same 200-yard IM and 400-yard free teams.

"Overall the kids worked really hard," said TR Robinson. "The conference meet is the only meet that matters. We started in September and worked all the way up to this week. Then the kids had exams this week, which makes it tough. I'm really proud of them."

Having worked with several of the Draughn team members since they were nine years old, Robinson has seen his kids through a lot. "A lot of these kids, Austin Hyde John Linkous, LaurenWallrichs, we have a competitive relationship with them. I know what they are capable of, they know what I expect."

For Hyde, his coach gives his team something that perhaps is a competitive edge. "A big part of it is you have to love to swim. TR makes us love it. He doesn't outright push us with sprints and such to where we hate it. He gets us to a point where we can relax and enjoy swimming."