South Caldwell boys, St. Stephens girls repeat champs

It was a good night for the defending champions.

South Caldwell High’s boys and St. Stephens’ girls each won their second straight Northwestern 3A-4A swimming championship on Friday at the Valdese Aquatic Center.

South Caldwell finished with 314 points, 18 in front of second-place Watauga (296), while the St. Stephens girls finished with 316 points to second-place Hickory’s 259.

In the boys’ championship, South Caldwell appeared to have the meet all but won after winning the 200-yard freestyle relay. But one of the four swimmers was called for an early takeoff and the Spartans were disqualified from that event and Watauga placed third.

The Spartans lost 36 points and went from leading to six points back of the Pioneers.

South Caldwell bounced back in the final three events to regain the lead.

In the final three events, the Spartans had three finish in the top four with one win and they placed fourth in the final team event.

“I told the guys it’s one thing to win a conference championship, but it’s another thing to defend,” said South Caldwell head coach Brent Tomberlin. “They really showed up tonight. We got DQed in one of the relays that we won and it really would have been over by then.

“We came back and fought back. The reason we won is these guys never give up and continue to fight.”

Watauga and South Caldwell battled for the title not with wins as much as consistency.

Out of nine individual events, South Caldwell had two wins and 10 finish second, third, fourth or fifth. The Pioneers had no individual winners and 10 finish second, third, fourth or fifth as well.

In the two team events, South Caldwell had one win and a fourth while Watauga had three second-place finishes.

On the girls’ side, it was much the same story as the boys with Hickory and St. Stephens using consistency.

In the nine individual events, Hickory had two wins to the Indians’ one but the difference came from second through fifth.

St. Stephens had 10 finish either second, third, fourth or fifth while Hickory had six. And in the two team events, Hickory had two wins but the Indians had two third-place finishes and one fourth.

“We knew it was going to close coming in with Hickory,” said St. Stephens head coach LeeAnn Privett. “I told them before the meet if they stepped up and placed better we would have a good shot and that’s what they did. We had strong finishes in numbers and that was the key.”

Individually, there were four swimmers winning multiple events.

In the girls, Leah Watts (Fred T. Foard) won the 200-yard IM and 500-yard freestyle, while Janie Kennedy (Hickory) won the 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke.

On the boys’ side, Sava Turcanu (St. Stephens) won the 200-yard IM and 500-yard freestyle, while Jake Pierce (Fred T. Foard) won the 100-yard fly and 100-yard breast.

NORTHWESTERN 3A-4A CHAMPIONSHIPS

(Friday at Valdese Rec Center)

GIRLS

Team scores: 1.St. Stephens 316; 2. Hickory 259; 3. Watauga 245; 4. Fred T. Foard 221; 5. S. Caldwell 220; 6. Hibriten 198; 7. Alexander Central 75.

Individual events (top five finishers)

200 medley relay: 1. Watauga 2:03.94; 2. Fred T. Foard 2:04.5; 3. S. Caldwell 2:04.88; 4. St. Stephens 2:05.79; 5. Hibriten 2:07.51

200 free: Rachel Ponti (SC) 2:04.56; 2. Abigail McRea (Hic) 2:06.57; 3. Nanami Miyazaki (SS) 2:13.16; 4. Hailey Middlebrook (W) 2:14.36; 5. Lauren Madden (SS) 2:15.52

200 IM: Leah Watts (FTF) 2:14.97; 2. Samantha Merta (Hic) 2:20.66; 3. Darby Middlebrook (W) 2:21.50; 4. Jessica Burgess (SS) 2:30.03; 5. Kellie Stamey (SS) 2:30.35

50 free: Janie Kennedy (Hic) 25.72; 2. Lauren Arrington (SC) 26.30; 3. Anne Taylor (W) 26.39; 4. Sierra Kincaid (FTF) 28.66; 5. Danielle Morton (FTF) 29.13

100 fly: Kelsey Gregory (Hib) 1:05.46; 2. Amelia King (SC) 1:06.59; 3. Katie Knecht (SS) 1:07.65; 4. Natalie Bolick (Hic) 1:07.82; 5. Lauren Schultz (SS) 1:11.15

100 free: Marinela Procopii (SS) 57.28; 2. Rachel Ponti (SC) 57.61; 3. Anne Taylor (W) 58.31; 4. Julie Bottoms (Hib) 59.12; 5. Natalie Bolick (Hic) 1:00.23

500 free: Leah Watts (FTF) 5:25.35; 2. Kelsey Gregory (Hib) 5:34.58; 3. Abigail McRea (Hic) 5:40.41; 4. Kellie Stamey (SS) 5:49.96; 5. Megan Dodd (Hib) 6:17.75

200 free relay: Hickory 1:48.03; 2. Fred T. Foard 1:50.84; 3. S. Caldwell 1:51.12; 4. Hibriten 1:52.41; 5. St. Stephens 1:59.92

100 back: Janie Kennedy (Hic) 1:04.13; 2. Jessica Burgess (SS) 1:06.19; 3. Julie Bottoms (Hib) 1:07.11; 4. Nanami Miyazaki (SS) 1:08.21; 5. Hailey Middlebrook (W) 1:08.65

100 breast: Darby Middlebrook (W) 1:10.74; 2. Marinela Procopii (SS) 1:12.73; 3. Lauren Arrington (SC) 1:17.47; 4. Samantha Merta (Hic) 1:17.75; 5. Kristen Consing (FTF) 1:19.77

400 free relay: Hickory 3:55.90; 2. Watauga 3:59.53; 3. St. Stephens 4:03.38; 4. Fred T. Foard 4:30.22; 5. Hibriten 4:48.17

BOYS

Team scores: 1. S. Caldwell 314; 2. Watauga 296; 3. St. Stephens 261; 4. Hickory 219; 5. Fred T. Foard 206; 6. Hibriten 110; 7. Alexander Central 108

Individual events (top five finishers)

200 medley relay: 1. S. Caldwell 1:48.33; 2. Watauga 1:51.70; 3. St. Stephens 1:52.14; 4. Fred T. Foard 1:54.63; 5. Hickory 1:57.56

200 free: Sami Alkoutami (SS) 1:56.98; 2. Forrest Brown (W) 2:00.14; 3. Jansen Cole (FTF) 2:10.82; 4. Ben Watson (W) 2:11.82; 5. Derek Moose (SS) 2:12.35

200 IM: Sava Turcanu (SS) 2:01.22; 2. Nick Gibson (SC) 2:03.72; 3. Alex Ivanov (SS) 2:24.38; 4. Noah Allain (W) 2:26.72; 5. Sam Erwin (W) 2:31.18

50 free: Collin Hites (Hib) 23.20; 2. Clay Graves (SC) 23.41; 3. Stuart Williams (Hic) 24.27; 4. Marcus Funston (W) 24.70; 5. Jansen Cole (FTF) 24.97

100 fly: Jake Pierce (FTF) 54.97; 2. Devin Abernethy (SC) 57.14; 3. Marcus Funston (W) 58.37; 4. Jake Evans (SC) 1:01.11; 5. Noah Allain 1:02.13

100 free: Clay Graves (SC) 51.94; 2. Forrest Brown (W) 53.71; 3. Collin Danner (SS) 54.68; 4. Connor Pilgrim (Hic) 56.31; 5. Avery Scronce (SC) 57.42

500 free: Sava Turcanu (SS) 4:51.12; 2. Nick Gibson (SC) 5:01.82; 3. Zack Muehl (SC) 5:36.86; 4. Ryan Ferner (Hic) 5:55.05; 5. Brandon Michelson (W) 5:56.44

200 free relay: Hickory 1:43.33; 2. Watauga 1:44.71; 3. Fred T. Foard 1:45.27; 4. Alexander Central 1:49.44; 5. St. Stephens 1:49.50

100 back: Devin Abernethy (SC) 59.95; 2. Stuart Williams (Hic) 1:02.88; 3. Justin Zumbo (W) 1:04.16; 4. Tanner Penley (SC) 1:04.59; 5. Alex Ivanov (SS) 1:07.49

100 breast: Jake Pierce (FTF) 1:04.15; 2. Collin Hites (Hib) 1:05.53; 3. Sami Alkoutami (SS) 1:10.36; 4. Zack Muehl (SC) 1:13.55; 5. Hunter Rideout (SC) 1:13.76

400 free relay: 1. St. Stephens 3:37.46; 2. Watauga 3:41.32; 3. Fred T. Foard 3:51.30; 4. S. Caldwell 3:53.96; 5. Alexander Central 4:15.16