LAURINBURG — Heading into Wednesday’s third Sandhills Athletic Conference meet of the season, the Richmond Senior High School boys and girls swimming teams shifted their game plan in the pool.
Head coach Mike Way explained that his teams raced in last week’s meet with a focus on individual events, but this week, a stronger emphasis was placed on the team relays. It worked for the Raiders, as the boys finished in fifth place (135 points), a season-high, but a late disqualification for the Lady Raiders in the 200-yard freestyle relay kept them in sixth place (92 points).
Jack Britt High School’s boys and girls teams each took first place, as Pinecrest High School’s teams took the second-place spot.
Richmond had to overcome some personnel issues Wednesday, as senior Natalie Davis was battling illness and wasn’t able to compete in her individual events. Davis has proven to be a top 10 finisher in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events, and Way said her absence didn’t help the Lady Raiders in the pool.
“We ended up fifth and sixth,” Way explained, “and the girls’ points were there for the taking and we couldn’t get them. Natalie only swam in the 200-yard relay and she didn’t get any other points. Her and Greyson (Way) get the majority of the points for the girls, and if we had everyone tonight, we were looking at a fourth-place finish.”
Since Richmond is still a young program only in its second season, Way is also having trouble filling all of the events for both teams. Similar to high school wrestling, if a team doesn’t participate in an event, those points are forfeited and counts against the possible point total during the meet.
There are 12 total events for the boys and girls to compete in respectively, and of those events, the Raiders competed in seven of them, while the Lady Raiders competed in six.
“Some events we’ve accepted we can’t do,” Way noted. “We just can’t focus on it enough in practice to perfect it. For example, the butterfly — we don’t have anybody who can do it for 100 yards and not get disqualified. But Dakota (Locklear) made up a lot of ground in that tonight in the 200-yard medley relay.
“Right now, we’re grasping at straws,” he added. “We’ve tried some different things like trying to fill individual events last week, and switching our focus on relays this week because it’s triple the points. We got in as many relays as we could, and it worked for the boys — they finished in their highest spot this season.”
The Raiders competed in all three relays (200-yard medley, 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle), while the Lady Raiders are up to competing in the 200 and 400-yard freestyle. Way explained that a relay is worth a possible 38 points, and the Lady Raiders could have closed in on fourth place, but a swimmer leaving the platform early disqualified them from competition.
“(The girls) have finished second in that event every meet this season, but we haven’t seen any of the points because we’ve been disqualified all three times,” Way said. “I’ve worked with them and helped them change the way we do it, and I think it looks like they’re leaving way too late. We finished 53 points behind fifth place, so if we get those points we make a big jump.”
Greyson Way and Locklear each earned the night’s top performances for Richmond, as both took fourth place in separate events. Way finished fourth overall in the girls’ 50-yard freestyle, with a final time of 31.63 seconds. Locklear also took that spot in his 100-yard freestyle race, posting a time of 1:04.38, which was two seconds faster than his time last week.
While any number of swimmers can compete in a given event, only the top two finishers from each school take home points. Haleigh Poston finished ninth overall in the 50-yard freestyle, adding nine points to Way’s 15. Locklear also took the top spot for the Raiders in that event, posting a time of 28.60 seconds, good enough for eighth overall and 12 points. Nolan Allen’s 26th-place time of 32.14 seconds tacked on three more points.
In the girls’ 100-yard freestyle, Lauren Humman and Kassie Smith placed 14th and 18th overall, respectively, as the top two swimmers for Richmond. Coach Way noted that it’s also important for swimmers to improve on their times from the week before, while also winning their individual heats regardless of it’s for points or not.
Other swimmers to win his or her heat were Smith (40.68) and Allen (32.14) in the 50-yard freestyle. Kelsey Murray (37.09) and Ellie Buck (37.20) took second place in their respective heats in the same event.
The SAC swimming regular season will wrap up following the extended holiday break on Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. Richmond will team up with Pinecrest to host the meet, which is scheduled for a 5:30 p.m. start.
