LAURINBURG — A season-high in total points is how the Richmond Senior High School boys’ swimming team entered its holiday break Wednesday.
The Raiders and the other members of the Sandhills Athletic Conference met at St. Andrews University for the third conference meet of the winter.
Recording a season-high 83 points, Richmond placed fifth overall. A week earlier, the Raiders had 54 points and were third.
Finishing ahead of Richmond were Pinecrest (261 points), Union Pines (248 points), Southern Lee (91 points) and Scotland (89 points) high schools.
The Raiders’ score was better than sixth-place Hoke County High School (19 points).
“Our times were really good this week and we were able to add another relay race,” head coach Lauren Brewer said. “It just unfortunately didn’t help us as much as we would have liked in what ended up being a really tight race in the final points.
“The guys have continued to get better each week and that’s been our ultimate goal. DJ Gainey has been a consistent swimmer and some of the others are starting to find their rhythm and collect points. This was a good measurement of where we want to be heading into the break.”
Similar to the Lady Raider swimming team, the Raiders added the 200-yard medley relay to its stock of races. With that addition came another cluster of points.
The Raiders’ best finish of the meet was in the 200-yard freestyle relay race. Improving as a unit for the second straight meet, Richmond set a season-low time of 2:11.17.
Taking second place behind Pinecrest (1:43.89), the Raiders collected 26 points. Swimming, in order, were senior Gavin Applewhite, junior DJ Gainey, senior Matthew Leggett and senior Cole Thrower.
Together, the four Raiders shaved 7.47 seconds off their previous fastest time from the second meet of the season.
In the 200-yard medley relay, junior Luke Gilliam (backstroke), Leggett (breaststroke), Applewhite (butterfly) and Thrower (freestyle) clocked in at 3:01.51. That put Richmond in fourth place in its debut race and added 22 more points.
Gainey and Thrower, Richmond’s two most consistent swimmers, each ended the meet with double-digit points in individual events. Leading with 13 points was Gainey, followed by Thrower’s 10 points.
Adding to the team score were Gilliam (9 points) and Leggett (3 points).
Competing in three events, joining Leggett and Thrower for the most on the team, Gainey notched his 13 points between the 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle races.
His best finish was fifth place in the 200-yard swim, which saw him hit the wall in 3:58.41 for 10 points. Facing a tougher field in the 100-yard freestyle, Gainey was 10th overall (1:27.50) and earned his final three points.
All of Thrower’s points came in the 50-yard freestyle, the fastest event at the meet. In the finals heat, Thrower completed the lap in the pool in 29.27 seconds, placing fifth overall for 10 points.
Taking sixth in the 100-yard backstroke was Gilliam, which accounted for all nine of his points. His final time of 1:59.63 was a new career best, a total of 2.02 seconds better than his season opener time.
Leggett, who helped in both relays, ended his point scoring with a 10th-place finish (3 points) in the 50-yard freestyle (32.57 seconds).
Richmond has nearly a month off from competition thanks to the upcoming holiday break. The first meet of 2025 will be Wednesday, Jan. 8, at St. Andrews.
