Byrd girls swim to second, set new state relay records
VINTON – The William Byrd girls placed second in the state swim meet last week despite having just six girls competing. The team of Kacy Edsall, Kali Edall, Annie Lane, Mackenzie Lingle, Brittany Ritter and Courtney Heck scored 202 points to finish behind only Western Albemarle among the 43 schools who scored and close to 80 entered in the meet.
“What a weekend,” said Byrd coach Krista Martin. “This is the highest Byrd has placed since 2004.”
These William Byrd girls took second place in the state last weekend in VHSL swimming. Top, left to right: Kali Edsell, Annie Lane, Mackenzie Lingle, Brittany Ritter and Courtney Heck. Below: Coach Kyndal Spradlin, Kacy Esall and Coach Krista Martin.
It was a busy weekend for the Terriers, as the Christiansburg Aquatic Center hosted a combined meet for the state’s Group AA and Group A schools. Preliminaries were on Friday and the Byrd 200 Medley Relay team of Kali Edsall, Annie Lane, Kacy Edsall and Mackenzie Lingle crushed the state record by almost two seconds.
“You usually see records broken by tenths or hundreths… not seconds,” said Martin. “Each girls’ split was phenomenal. The record was from 2009 was set by Hidden Valley at 1:48.26 and our girls went 1:46.48.”
The Byrd relay team also set a new school record, breaking the one set last year by Kali, Annie, Kacy and Caitlin Gerig of 1:49.44.
On Saturday at the finals the girls broke their own state record by almost another second, lowering the new state record to 1:45.51.
“I believe this record is going to stand for a very long time,” said Martin. “It is also an All American cut. The race was so awesome to watch. Each girl split even faster than they did at prelims. They really went after it. Our mentality was to protect our record.”
The girls were also excited to see what the 400 Free Relay could do.
“There had not been a meet during the season where all four of these swimmers had each swam the best that they could at the same time on this relay,” said Martin.
On Friday, they did. At the prelims the foursome went 3.33.81, breaking the state record of 3:34.57 set by Hidden Valley in 2009. They also broke the school record set by by Claire Woodall-Gainey, Kristin Escobar, Kyndal Spradlin (now coach Terrell) and Erin Tudor of 3:41.22 from February 2004.
“It was unbelievable,” said Martin. “The girls have had a friendly competition with Coach Terrell all year about wanting to break this record. This relay also made the All-American consideration cut.”
Individually, Kali Edsall and Lane went 1-2 in the 200 IM. Kali out touched Annie by two one hundredths of a second.
“It was a close race and we were so excited to have the top two finishers in this event,” said Martin. “Kali and Annie both broke the school record set by Bonnie Sutton in 2003.”
Sutton’s record was 2:08.49 and Edsall lowered it to 2:04.45 in winning the state championship. Both girls made the All American consideration cut.
Kacy Edall was second in the 100 Fly in 57.03 and broke her own school record from 2010 of 57.55. Mackenzie Lingle was 6th in the 100 free.
The 200 Free Relay of Ritter, Lingle, Heck and Kacy Edsall was 8th.
“Being in the finals in all three relays made all the difference in our ability to be contender for top three,” said Martin. “This came at no small price. Two of our swimmers gave up spots in their individual races to swim on all three relays to give the team the best shot at placing. To me, putting the needs of the team before yourself shows the ultimate character and I’m very proud of these girls.”
Kali Edsall was 3rd in the 100 Back with a new school record of 56.89, breaking Kacy’s record from 2011 of 57.37. She also made a consideration cut time for All American.
Lane was second in the 100 Breast with a new school record of 1:04.71, breaking her own record from earlier this season of 1:09.41. Annie also broke this record on Friday at prelims with her qualifying time of 1:05.51.
Byrd was seeded first to Western Albermarle by one second going into the final event on Saturday, the 400 Free Relay.
“We knew it was going to come down to the finish,” said Martin. Each girl stepped up and swam her heart out. The splits were amazing, each of them left it in the pool. Kali was our anchor and you could just see her determination with every stroke. They finished the meet how they started it, state champions and state record holders. The new record is now 3:31.80, two seconds faster than the record they had set on Friday.”
It was a great ending to an exciting day for the Byrd girls.
“It was a perfect way to end the meet, and what a memorable moment for Kacy Edsall’s last swim as a Terrier,” said Martin. “I’m going to miss her so much. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about how much she has grown over the last five years. She’s really something special.”
For the boys, Drew Vipperman earned points in the 200 IM and the 500 Free. He put Byrd on the board in 33rd place out of 80 teams. Tabb was the state boys’ champ and Hidden Valley was second.
