Home Local Sports Team effort helps Lady Raiders to 4th-place finish on senior night

Team effort helps Lady Raiders to 4th-place finish on senior night

ROSports File Photo: Sophomore Natalie Richardson scored a team-high 16 points in Richmond's meet Wednesday. (Kyle Pillar, sports editor)

RAEFORD — In its biggest point swing of the season, the Richmond Senior High School girls swimming team matched its season-best performance Wednesday.

Following last week’s season-low point total, the Lady Raiders improved by more than 45 points to finish fourth as a team in the Sandhills Athletic Conference meet.

Richmond recorded 93 points in its fifth regular season meet, which was also senior night. Prior to the first event, the team’s six seniors were recognized along with all the other senior swimmers in the conference.

The Lady Raiders’ seniors this winter were Samantha Barnes, Nelly Cadena, Jamison Hubbard, Lilly Stubbs, Mascha Theijs and Alivia Webb.

The 93 points tied a season-high for the team, which also scored that many points in the third meet of the season. Six Lady Raider swimmers registered individual points and its two relay teams finished in the top four spots.

“This was the kind of performance we wanted to have tonight,” head coach Ashleigh Buie said. “We were flat last week and knew we could do a lot better. Everyone really showed out tonight and competed hard in her respective events to get our point total back up.

“Senior night is always special, and even though this is my first season as coach, I’ve known most of the seniors for a while,” she added. “It’s been a really fun season and our seniors have shown a lot of leadership and dedication, which was on display tonight.”

Taking advantage of two relay races, the Lady Raiders combined to score 46 points with a third and fourth-place finish in the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays, respectively.

The Lady Raiders notched 24 points in the medley relay with a season-best time of 2:54.30. Webb started the race with the backstroke and was followed by Theijs (breaststroke), sophomore Lillian Hill (butterfly) and Hubbard (freestyle).

Three of those four swimmers — Hill, Hubbard and Webb — teamed up with Barnes in the freestyle relay for 22 more points. The four Lady Raiders clocked in at 2:22.35.

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Leading the team in individual points were sophomore Natalie Richardson (16 points) and Theijs (10 points).

Richardson swam the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard freestyle, with her best finish coming in the longer-distanced race. She placed sixth overall in the freestyle (3:22.13) for nine points.

In her other finals heat, Richardson was seventh in the backstroke, hitting the wall in 1:52.24 for another seven points.

All of Theijs’ points were the result of a fifth-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke. She recorded a season-best time of 1:49.75, one of just two season-fastest performances by the team.

Cadena and Hubbard both secured seven points for Richmond, while Hill had four points and Barnes had three points. Barnes’ 10th-place time of 33.84 seconds in the open 50-yard race was her fastest time this season.

In the 200-yard freestyle, Cadena placed seventh for seven points (3:32.07). Hubbard matched the seventh-place mark for seven points in the 50-yard freestyle (32.81 seconds).

Rounding out Richmond’s scoring was Hill in the 100-yard freestyle. She completed the race in 1:31.39, good enough for ninth overall and four points.

Winning the meet was Pinecrest High School (284 points), which narrowly defeated Union Pines High School (279 points). Also finishing just ahead of Richmond was third-place Hoke County High School (96 points).

The Lady Raiders will swim in one final regular season meet next Wednesday at the Leach Aquatic Center. The start time is 6 p.m.