CARY — Chatham high schoolers posted good times and earned a medal in last week’s state high school swimming and diving championships.
Jennah Fadley of Jordan-Matthews finished second in the 100-meter breaststroke and grabbed fourth-place in the 200-meter individual medley, earning all of the Jets’ 32 points in the women’s 1A/2A meet held last Thursday at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Carrboro. The team finished 18th.
Two days later, also in Carrboro, the Northwood girls finished ninth in the 3A championships with 104 points.
Julia Earnshaw captured fifth place in the 50-yard freestyle with a 24.12 before finishing seventh in the 100-yard freestyle with a 53.23 time. Mia Corrado took 5th in the 500-yard freestyle for with a mark of 5:06.92. Suzanne Earshaw finished 11th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a 1:07.78 time.
The Northwood 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relay teams comprised of Corrado, Julia Earnshaw, Suzanne Earnshaw and Gwen Hoeg took 6th place in both events with times of 1:50.61 and 3:36.86 respectively.
The Carrboro women earned their second straight team title in the 1A/2A on and Charlotte Catholic captured its third consecutive 3A crown on.
On Thursday, Emme Nelson from Community School of Davidson claimed the Most Outstanding Swimmer for the women’s 1A/2A meet. Nelson touched first in two events and participated on a victorious relay team. She and her 200-yard medley relay teammates Katie Tolone, Eliana White and Meredith Tucker won the meet’s opening event in a time of 1:48.18 as Nelson swam the second leg for the squad.
Nelson capped off her high school career winning the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard breaststroke. She won the 200 IM for the fourth time in her career, touching in 2:03.49 and cruising to the victory by over four seconds. She also won the 100 Breaststroke for the fourth time in her career, edging the field with a time of 1:02.81 for her final high school swim, edging out a hard-charging Fadely.
Carrboro won two of the meet’s three relay events with the Jaguars team of Emily Carpenter, Lucy Carroll, Lindy Bilden and Kate Hegland combining to win the 200-yard and 400-yard freestyle relay events. The quartet touched in 1:38.13 to win the 200-yarder, racing past second place Community School of Davidson. Then in the final women’s race of the night, the foursome blitzed past the field by more than five seconds, touching in 3:33.54. Bilden also managed to win the individual title in the 50-yard Freestyle, posting a time of 23.65 seconds.
Emily Knorr from Salisbury also won a pair of individual events. Knorr captured the 200-meter freestyle in 1:50.56, holding off Ede Kosik from Voyager Academy. Then Knorr dominated the 500-meter freestyle, winning the event for the second straight year by posting a time of 4:52.40, over three seconds clear of the field.
On Saturday, the Charlotte Catholic women raced to victory with wins in two of the three relay events in the 2020 3A State Meet. The Cougars 200-meter freestyle relay of Olivia Rhodes, Hope Borders, Abigail Parks and Alina Stout out-touched the 3A meet record of 1:34.39 set by Weddington a year ago in the event, as the Cougar quartet brought home gold in 1:34.30. The 400-meter freestyle relay was also victorious, with Stout, Victoria Dichak, Madeline Menkhaus and Parks combining to win in 3:27.08.
Menkhaus and Rhodes also won individual events for Charlotte Catholic. Menkhaus won the 100-meter butterfly in a time of 54.42 seconds while Rhodes collected the top spot in the 50-meter freestyle in 23.44 seconds. The pair helped lift Charlotte Catholic to a third straight NCHSAA 3A State Championship and the 16th team title in program history.
J.H. Rose’s Madeline Smith turned in a pair of wins, collecting gold in the 200-meter and 100-meter freestyles. Smith touched in 1:49.38 in the 200 and 50.15 seconds in the 100 to lead the Rampants. She was named the 3A Most Outstanding Swimmer for the women’s meet.
The 200-meter medley relay team from Cuthbertson also broke a 3A state meet record, rolling to a time of 1:45.30. Jordan Browning, Alison Thome, Avery Murray, and Leah Sandock combined for the Cavaliers to take down the previous record of 1:45.46 established by the Charlotte Catholic relay squad from 2018.