LAURINBURG — The Richmond Senior High School boys’ and girls’ swimming teams participated in their third ever Sandhills Athletic Conference championship meet on Saturday.
Capping the regular season at O’Herron Pool on the campus of St. Andrews University, the Raiders and Lady Raiders competed against the seven other SAC schools. For the first time, the girls and boys swam in separate meets, back-to-back.
A winter of transition and rebuilding for both programs ended with the girls’ team taking seventh place with 35 points, seven points ahead of Seventy-First High School. Head coach Mike Way noted that several of his top swimmers, including Kayla Hawkins and Maylyn Wallace, were absent from the event.
In the boys’’ meet, the Raiders swam competitively, but finished eighth overall, collecting 66 points. Richmond trailed Purnell Swett High School by just 12.5 points.
Jack Britt and Pinecrest high schools, which have won either side of the championship the past two seasons, were atop the standings again. The Lady Buccaneers tallied 397 points for the conference title, with the Patriots won the boys’ event with 459 points.
A season ago, the Lady Raider 200-yard freestyle relay team made up of Natalie Davis, Kelsey Murray, Haileigh Poston and Greyson Way took second in the event. It’s the program’s lone conference championship placement, either boys or girls, since Richmond added swimming during the 2017-2018 school year.
This season, the Raiders’ best finish was in the 200-yard medley relay, who took fifth place and earned 28 points. Finishing in a time of 2:24.29 were Eric Singleton (backstroke, 40.48 seconds), Thomas Barbee (breaststroke, 43.34), Dakota Locklear (butterfly, 30.83) and Robbie Baxley (freestyle, 29.64).
In the girls’ meet, the Lady Raiders picked up a majority of their points with a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Notching 24 points in 2:30.73 were Ellie Buck (44.22 seconds), Kassie Smith (33.98), O’cean Bennett (34.94) and Aeriel Spooner (37.59).
Spooner would round out the Lady Raiders’ scoring with 11 points in the 100-yard backstroke event, swimming a personal record time of 1:39.10. On her first lap of the pool she went wall to wall in 49.06 seconds and ended her second in 50.04 seconds. She took eighth overall.
Bennett, Smith and Kiersten Gibson all participated in the 50-yard freestyle, but didn’t place. They finished with times of 37.74 seconds (Bennett), 39.02 seconds (Smith) and 40.44 seconds (Gibson).
The boys got another big boost in points in the 200-yard freestyle relay, taking seventh overall with a mark of 2:05.27. The event added 24 more points to their score.
Representing the Raiders in the 200 freestyle relay were Baxley (29.94 seconds), Barbee (32.25), Jonathan Alicea (38.64) and Locklear, who shaved nearly two seconds off his personal record time, anchoring the race with a post of 24.44 seconds.
Locklear’s previous best, which he set in the third regular season meet of the season in the individual event, was 26.42 seconds.
Ten more points came for the Raiders in the 50-yard freestyle, netting nine from Locklear’s ninth-place finish (27.20), which was just 0.05 seconds off Jack Britt’s Cameron Mock. Baxley earned a point with a time of 30.26 seconds.
The final four points for Richmond came on a 13th place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke by Barbee. He closed his season with a time of 1:41.53.
Three other Raiders swam in the individual 100-yard freestyle, but didn’t place. They were sophomore Wil Mabe (1:18.06), freshman Aiden Liston (1:23.13) and sophomore Colin Wheeler (1:25.68).
No one from either Richmond squad qualified for the regional tournament. ROSports will publish a full season recap on both swimming teams.
