RAEFORD — Putting together its best outing of the season Wednesday, the Richmond Senior High School boys’ swimming team made a splash in its first meet of the new year.
Participating in their fourth Sandhills Athletic Conference meet of the winter at the Leach Aquatic Center, the Raiders tallied a season-high 100 points.
That total placed Richmond third out of six teams, the second time in four meets the team has finished in the top three spots.
Four individual swimmers recorded points for the Raiders, in addition to two relay teams racking up nearly half of the points.
Both relay teams, along with those four individual Raiders, recorded season-best times.
“Following our winter break, we really wanted to put together a strong performance to start the new year,” head coach Lauren Brewer said. “The guys have been practicing hard and working on their techniques, which showed by all of the faster times.
“We’ve been aiming for the 100-point mark as a team and tonight we got there,” she continued. “Our relay teams have been great and we’ve been able to score more points because we have swimmers willing to compete in new events.”
Taking first in the meet was Pinecrest High School with 281 points and Union Pines High School was second overall with 269 points.
Rounding out the standings were Richmond (100), Southern Lee (85), Hoke County (28) and Scotland (21) high schools.
The Raiders scored 24 points with a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay and added 22 points with a fourth-place time in the 200-yard medley relay.
Junior DJ Gainey, seniors Gavin Applewhite and Matthew Leggett, and junior Cole Thrower combined to swim the four laps in the pool in the open 200-yard race. Their combined time of 2:09.69 was nearly two seconds better than the team’s previous best.
Junior Luke Gilliam started the 200-yard medley relay with the backstroke. Following him were Applewhite (butterfly), Leggett (breaststroke) and Thrower (freestyle). Together, they clocked in at 2:48.56, shaving more than 12 seconds off their time from their last meet.
Registering individual points for Richmond were Thrower (team-high 19 points), Gainey (15 points), Leggett (11 points) and Gilliam (9 points). Each of those totals were single-meet season-highs.
Thrower swam in the 100-yard and 50-yard freestyle races, setting his fastest time of the winter in the first race. He took fifth in the 100-yarder with a time of 1:08.90 for 10 points and followed that with a time of 28.86 seconds in the open 50-yard race (sixth place, nine points).
Gainey split his points with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 3:44.54 (10 points) and an eighth-place mark of 1:24.61 in the 100-yard freestyle (five points), which was his fastest time in the event.
In his two races, Leggett swam to seventh and ninth-place, respectively, in the 100-yard breaststroke (seven points) and 50-yard freestyle (four points). He posted a season-best time of 1:31.03 in the breaststroke and recorded a time of 35.42 seconds in the open 50.
In his lone individual event, Gilliam finished sixth in the 100-yard backstroke. He collected nine points with his fastest time this winter of 1:50.22.
Seniors Michael Jurczyk (100-yard freestyle) and Erik Reichert (50-yard freestyle) swam in exhibition heats.
The Raiders will swim in their final regular season meet next Wednesday. The meet will be held in Raeford and begin at 6 p.m.
PHOTOS: Click here to view photos from Wednesday’s SAC swim meet.