Titans swim to victory at All-Timesland meet – Knights take second place
Swim coach Sheri Vaughn describes her Hidden Valley team as “determined.” That determination was on display at the All-Timesland Invitational swim meet last Saturday, where her men’s and women’s teams both topped the scoreboard.
Hidden Valley's Katherine Moles congratulates Cave Spring's Jackie Crawford on a record-breaking swim in the 100-yard backstroke. -Photos by Sharon Nanz
Nearly four hundred athletes from eighteen schools competed in preliminary heats at the Gator Aquatic Center as they vied for spots in the finals session. Vaughn says that most of her swimmers swam four events in preliminaries and that “having to come back…after a short 90 minute break and do it all over again…was a daunting task.”
Hidden Valley and Cave Spring went one-two with scores of 495-343, respectively, in the men’s division and 469-323 in the women’s. Fork Union Academy, last year’s men’s champions, was not in attendance. North Cross School brought two swimmers to the finals.
The Knights and Titans relay teams showcased their strength by winning three events each. Thanks to the talents of Nathan Ewoldt, Josh Klimaitis, Jacob Siar, and Luke Munson, the Knights won the men’s 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay events. Cave Spring women Jackie Crawford, Maddie Kennedy, Ali Horn and Amory Mayo out-touched the Titans in the 200-yard medley relay.
Titans Dylan Otruba, Alex Vance, Mark Adams and Garrett Vaughn swam to an easy victory in the 200-yard medley relay event, while Hidden Valley women Caroline Caldwell, Katie Campbell, Stephanie Karras and Katie Young won a close 200-yard freestyle relay race. Teammates Lauren Gray, Sami Norman, Katherine Moles and Devin Henry finished up strong in the last event of the evening as their 400-yard freestyle relay team broke the Titans’ own meet record with a winning time of 3:45.00.
Cave Spring swimmers claimed several meet records of their own on Saturday. Siar, a sophomore, broke the 200-yard freestyle record with a time of 1:45.97, while sophomore Jackie Crawford snagged the 50-yard freestyle record, clocking a 25.09.
She also established a new 100-yard backstroke record by posting a time of 59.30, breaking the record held by former Hidden Valley swimmer Lauren Hines, the 2009 state backstroke champion.
Junior Ali Horn also rewrote the record book. An All-American swimmer and state record holder, the Cave Spring swimmer broke her own records in the 200- and 500-yard freestyle.
The southwest county teams dominated most of the individual events, taking first in all but three. Cave Spring took the gold in seven events; Hidden Valley won six.
Points are awarded through sixteenth place, however, and the Titans ran up the score with their ability to capitalize on that system.
Hidden Valley junior Mark Adams says, “We have a lot of depth. We’re able to succeed in all the events.”
Knights head coach Andy Huray points to his team’s depth as the key to their success, as well. “A lot of our talent is up in our senior class, but we’ve had a very large group of new swimmers come in,” he says. “They’re really helping us out a lot. They came in ready to go and they’re working really hard.”
Vaughn is “extremely proud” of the Titans’ performance and says, “The team showed me they had miles of fortitude and the willingness to succeed. Most bettered their times from the morning swims…it was a beautiful thing to witness.”
The Knights and Titans will go head to head in a dual meet on January 27 at the Gator Aquatic Center, where Cave Spring hopes to turn the tables on its closest competitor.
