LAURINBURG — The Lady Raider swimming team competed in its second Sandhills Athletic Conference meet of the season on Wednesday.
With six swimmers competing in three different events, Richmond notched fifth place and recorded 36 points.
Pinecrest High School won its second straight meet, earning 258 points, while fourth-place Scotland High School finished ahead of Richmond with 123 points.
Despite having a smaller roster this season, the Lady Raiders showed improvement with their times in several races.
Freshman Presley Dawkins collected a team-high 19 points for Richmond, placing in the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle events for the first time this season.
Her best finish was in the open 200-yard race, taking fifth overall with a time of 3:02.52 and collecting 10 points. Finishing in front of Dawkins was Pinecrest’s Megan Moore (2:54.83).
Adding nine more points in the 100-yard freestyle, Dawkins hit the end wall in 1:21.99. Her sixth-place finish was just over two seconds behind Avery Armstrong (Union Pines, 1:19.83).
Also swimming in the 100 free was sophomore Nelly Cadena, who was responsible for 10 points for the Lady Raiders.
She set a new season-best time in the event, finishing in 1:26.18. That was good enough for eighth place and five points and was 2.33 seconds faster than her time in last week’s opener.
Cadena was one of five Lady Raiders to compete in the 50-yard freestyle event, earning another eighth-place mark and five additional points. Her time in that race was 36.41 seconds.
Also notching points for Richmond in the same race was sophomore Jamison Hubbard, who was just ahead of Cadena in seventh place. Ending with a time of 34.17 seconds, Hubbard set a new season-best time and added the final seven points.
Alivia Webb (36.94 seconds), Maddie Pearson (41.96 seconds) and Anayeli Zapata (58.44 seconds) each participated in the 50-yard freestyle.
Only the top-two finishers from each team collect points in any given event, but both Webb and Pearson recorded their fastest times of the winter.
The Lady Raiders will close out their shortened season on Saturday, Feb. 4, in the SAC championship meet at St. Andrews University.
