RAEFORD — In its final meet of the season, the Richmond Senior High School girls’ swimming team went out with some of its best times of the season.
The Lady Raiders, along with the conference’s other programs, competed in the Mid-South Conference championship meet last Thursday at the Leach Aquatic Center.
Although Richmond finished sixth out of the six qualifying teams with 159 points, several Lady Raiders posted their best individual times.
Winning the inaugural conference title was Pinecrest High School (383 points). The Lady Raiders were just two points away from leapfrogging fifth-place Hoke County High School (160 points).
The majority of the Lady Raiders’ points were scored thanks to competing in three team relay events.
Two of those relays, the 200-yard medley relay and the 400-yard freestyle relay, ended in sixth-place times and 26 points each (52 combined points). The Lady Raiders’ 200-yard freestyle relay team was fifth overall and collected 28 points.
Both freestyle relays also ended in season-best times for each relay team.
Swimming the 200-yard freestyle were juniors Natalie Richardson and Lillian Hill, freshman Jasey Braddock and Scott, who swam to a new team-best time of 2:23.35.
Competing in the 400-yard freestyle for just the second time this season, the Lady Raiders clocked in at 6:04.51. Swimming in that event were Braddock, Dawkins, sophomore Hayden Chappell and freshman Alaya Rankin.
In the 200-yard medley, it was Richmond’s reserve team that picked up points after the first team was disqualified. Rankin (backstroke), freshman Autumn Cooper (breaststroke), sophomore Annabelle Millen (butterfly) and sophomore Abby Hinson (freestyle) ended the event in 3:14.12.
A total of eight swimmers accounted for the team’s remaining points, picking them up in individual events.
Leading the way, much like she has all season, Richardson combined for 18 points in two events. She placed eighth overall in the 100-yard backstroke (11 points) with a season-best time of 1:42.38 and was 10th in the 200-yard freestyle (3:11.29, 7 points).
Dawkins and Millen were next on the scoresheet with 11 points each thanks to one eighth-place time in an event. Dawkins swam the 200-yard freestyle and finished ahead of Richardson with a time of 3:05.11.
Showing her progression to close out her first season of swimming, Millen challenged herself to complete the 200-yard individual medley. She did so with a time of 4:16.01 to collect 11 points.
Hill and freshman Kaydence Sellers contributed to the team score with nine points each as the result of a ninth-place finish. Completing the 100-yard freestyle in 1:31.27 was Hill, as Sellers posted a new personal-best time of 41.04 seconds in the open 50-yard race.
Rounding out the scoring was a trio of swimmers, all of whom had one 10th-place time for seven points each. Those swimmers were Scott (1:31.80, 100-yard free), Chappell (41.34 PR, 50-yard free) and Cooper (2:06.18 PR, 100-yard breaststroke).
The Lady Raiders finished the final season standings in sixth place and didn’t have any swimmers qualify for regionals.
