Spartan boys take second in Region IV swim meet

SALEM – The Salem boys were second overall and the girls took sixth in the Region IV swim meet in Christiansburg last week. The Spartans will be back in the C’burg pool this weekend for the Group AA state meet.

The Hidden Valley boys and the Cave Spring girls won Region IV championships. The Titan boys won four events and the Cave Spring girls had seven first place finishes. Hidden Valley was second in the girls’ meet.

The Salem boys had a big night in the pool to finish second. The boys Medley Relay team of John Sheffield, Hayden Helm, Sam Sheffield and Joey Dishaw tied Hidden Valley with the exact same time of 1:44.69.

In the 50 Free Salem’s Dishaw was second with a time of 22.97, and Josh Stick was fourth in that event at 23.97 as both move on to the state meet. Nelson Helm placed second in the 500 Free at 5:12.77 and he was also fifth in the 200 Free at 1:54.67. Hayden Helm took a second in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:05.77.

Stick was third in the 100 Free at 51:53, Dishaw was fifth at 52.04 and Sam Sheffield was sixth at 52.60, all moving on to state. John Sheffield was fifth in the 100 back.

Sixth places went to Braden Burns in the 200 Free, Sam Sheffield in the 200 IM, and Conner McCauley in the 500.

Also, the Boys 200 Free Relay team placed 2nd with a time of 1:34.54 and will move onto states.

Highlighting the girls, Allie Criss was third in the 100 Back with a time of 1:03.21 and fourth in the 50 Free at 26.46. Annie Forrester was fifth in the 100 Breast with a time of 1:21.80.

“Overall, I could not be happier with how they swam,” said Salem coach Beth Boothe. “Since only the top six individuals and top three relays move onto states it was a tough meet. We had several heart breakers, placing 7th and 8^th, which means their season is over. This is where our district and region are so competive and it’s a huge accomplishment just to get to states.”

Salem will have a total of 14 swimmers moving on, including relay members.

“It seems each year we have more and more going and you can’t ask for more than that,” said Boothe. “This weekend there will be lots of fast swimmers and stiff competition.”

Preliminaries are all day Friday and the finals will all be held on Saturday.

Tags: Allie Criss, Annie Forrester, Beth Boothe, Braden Burns, Hayden Helm, Joey Dishaw, John Sheffield, Josh Stick, Nelson Helm, Region IV, Salem High School, Sam Sheffield, Spartans, Swimming

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Salem Times Register, Sports, Swimming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.