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The Rockbridge County High School boys swimming team defeated both Waynesboro and Valley District rival Harrisonburg, while the RC girls beat Harrisonburg and came up short in a tight battle with Waynesboro in their home meet on Friday night at the Rockbridge Aquatics Center in Lexington. Parry McCluer High School’s lone swimmer, senior Olive King, won both the girls’ 50-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freestyle.
The Wildcat boys cruised to a 151-12 win over Harrisonburg and beat Waynesboro 130-77, while Waynesboro defeated Harrisonburg 100-21. The RC girls beat Harrisonburg 105-35. Waynesboro overcame the RC girls 95-88, and Waynesboro defeated Harrisonburg 105-35. King was credited with 14 points for PM.
RC head coach Erica Bisaillon said she was pleased with how her swimmers did, considering they hadn’t had an official practice the previous week due to wintry weather and hazardous road conditions. Some of the swimmers were able to practice on their own.
On the RC girls coasting past Harrisonburg and challenging Waynesboro, Bisaillon said, “I was pretty impressed. Having such a small girls’ team and having so many people not being able to practice over break due to transportation and being out of town, I’m really happy with the fight that they put up.”
RC and Waynesboro will be district rivals next year because the Wildcats will switch to the Shenandoah District, with shorter distances to travel.
Before the meet, the Wildcats honored King and their four seniors: boys Spencer Pfaff and Roman Stanley and girls Rio Bucy and Willow Moles. The Wildcats also honored their three foreign exchange students: boys Peeranut Chaoyong and Nikita Rogov and girl Miya Bayniyazova.
Bisaillon, in her third year as RC’s head coach, worked with some of the current Wildcats when she was coaching the Rockbridge Storm youth club. She said it’s been a joy to watch the seniors progress over the past decade. “Senior night was an emotional one, to say the least,” she said. “I love them all so much. I have known most of them for a very long time. I have coached most of them for a very long time. They bring an energy to the team that will be sorely missed. We’ll hopefully get some freshmen to take up the mantle.”
The RC boys won six individual races and two relays.
Pfaff celebrated senior night by winning both of his individual races,claimingthe50-yardfreestyle in 21.93 seconds and capturing the 100-yard butterfly in 53.8 seconds to qualify for the Class 3 state meet. He was also part of two winning relay teams, the 200-yard medley relay in 1:50.83 and the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:40.41. Teaming up with Pfaff in the medley relay were Stanley, junior Keagan Black and freshman Jacob Barney. In the freestyle relay, Pfaff and Black teamed up with freshmen Ru Bucy and Ben Gresham.
Black won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:14.81 and placed second in the 100yard butterfly in 57.81 seconds, achieving regional-qualifying times in both races.
Ru Bucy won both of his individual races and continued to improve his times., claiming the 200-yard freestyle in 2:10.51 and taking the 500-yard freestyle in 5:56.03.
Also winning for the RC boys was freshman Emil Hierman, claiming the 100-yard backstroke in 1:22.17.
The RC boys placed second in the 400-yard freestyle relay, finishing in 4:09.78. Team members were Bucy, Gresham, Barney and freshman Leif Guse.
In the girls’ races, King won the 50-yard freestyle in 26.23 seconds and claimed the 500-yard freestyle in 5:40.35. She had already qualified for the Class 1 and 2 state meet in both races.
For RC, Rio Bucy placed second in the 500-yard freestyle in a regional-qualifying time of 6:14.06 and finished second in the 50-yard freestyle in 28.48 seconds.
The RC girls won the 200yard medley relay in 2:28.67. Team members were Moles, Rio Bucy and juniors Alice Gresham and Lexi Walters. In the 200yard freestyle relay, the RC girls placed second in 2:12.42. Team members were Gresham, Walters, sophomore Camille Fuentes and freshman Liesl Niebur. The RC girls also placed second in the 400yard freestyle relay in 4:54.96 with team members Walters, Moles, Fuentes and Bucy.
Additional swimmers who placed in the top three individually for RC on Friday were as follows: (Boys) 50-yard freestyle – 2. Ben Gresham 26.66, 3. Stanley 28.97; 500-yard freestyle – 3. Barney 6:46.92; 100-yard backstroke – 2. Luke Eichholz 1:32.1; 100-yard backstroke – 2. Dmitriy Billias 1:35.87.
(Girls) 200-yard freestyle – 2. Niebur 2:56.94, 3. Fuentes 3:06.21; 100-yard freestyle – 2. Alice Gresham 1:13.49; 100-yard backstroke – 2. Niebur 1:41.38; 100-yard breaststroke – 2. Gresham 1:29.92.
Pfaff Sets Records
Led by Pfaff’s two victories, the RC boys placed fourth of 13 teams at the All-Timesland Meet on Saturday at the Gator Aquatic Center in Roanoke. King scored 32 points to place PM 10th of 13 teams in the girls’meet, while the RC girls tied Heritage for 11th place with 29 points. The meet was rescheduled from the previous Saturday due to wintry weather.
Patrick Henry won the boys’ meet with 331.5 points, and Glenvar (249.5) placed second. Rounding out the top five were Salem (212.5), RC (198) and Heritage (191). Hidden Valley (446) won the girls’ meet, Cave Spring (334) placed second, and Christiansburg (225) finished third. Completing the top five were Patrick Henry (186) and William Byrd (144).
Pfaff won the boys’ 50-yard freestyle in 21.43 seconds, setting a meet record, after swimming a time of 21.27 in the preliminaries. He claimed the 100-yard butterfly in 52.39 seconds, setting a new school record. Black placed second in the 100-yard butterfly in 55.06. In the 100-yard backstroke, Black finished second in 55.56.
The RC boys’ 200-yard medley team placed third in 1:46.82, while the 200-yard freestyle relay team also finished third in 1:37.83. The boys’400-yard freestyle relay team came in eighth in 4:36.33.
Bisaillon was also impressed by two of her freshman boys, Jacob Barney and Ben Gresham, who have had a breaststroke rivalry all season. They dropped two-anda- half to three seconds each at the meet, with Barney placing 10th in 1:16.14 and Gresham finishing 11th in 1:16.14. “That was really awesome,” said Bisaillon.
Barney placed 13th in the boys’ 200-yard freestyle in 2:26.19, while Gresham finished 13th in the 200yard individual medley in 3:02.29.
Also dropping time was Ru Bucy, placing sixth in the boys’ 500-yard freestyle in 5:52.08.
Following Black in the 100yard backstroke were freshmen Hierman (14th, 1:18.23) and Eichholz (16th, 1:30.17).
For the girls, King swam a personal-record time by a tenth of a second in the 500-yard freestyle, placing fourth in 5:36, and she placed second in the 50-yard freestyle in 26.04.
Leading the RC girls was Rio Bucy, placing seventh in the 500-yard freestyle in 6:17.47 and finishing 12th in the 50-yard freestyle in 29.45. Also stepping up was Fuentes, finishing 15th in the 50-yard freestyle in 32.06 seconds. Alice Gresham placed 11th in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:30.4.
Reviewing the meet, Bisaillon said, “It was really good overall, and I’m excited to see where these kids are gonna go in the next three weeks.”
For their last meet before the postseason, the Wildcats and King will have their final home meet when they face district rival Spotswood next Friday, Jan. 31, at 6 p.m. at the Rockbridge Aquatics Center. The home meet was rescheduled from last Friday, Jan. 10 due to hazardous road conditions following last week’s winter storm.
