Beaufort County swimmers succeed on Senior Night

Published 4:12 pm Thursday, January 23, 2020

The Pam Pack boys swim team won its final home meet of the 2019-20 season, the girls finished second, while Southside’s boys secured a fourth-place finish and the Seahawks’ girls team finished third on Wednesday night at the Moore Aquatic Center.

There were plenty of good performances from Beaufort County swimmers, especially in the 50-yard freestyle.

Southside’s freshman swimmer Delta Cole had the second-best time out of all 31 participants with a 27.70-second finish. Her older sister Darah Cole wasn’t far behind, as she took home a fourth-place finish with here 28.05 finish.

Darah Cole also won the 100-yard freestyle with an impressive 1 minute, 3.20 second finish to add seven points for her team.

Grayson Spruill of Washington picked up a point in her sixth-place finish, with a 29.19 second time in the 50-yard freestyle to set the pace for Pam Pack swimmers on Wednesday night.

As for the boys, Southside’s Campbell Barnes picked up five points for the Seahawks with a 24.60 finish. Freshman Austin Waters finished fourth, but first for Washington swimmers to earn three points for the Pam Pack with a 25.52 finish.

Three Washington swimmers and a Seahawk finished in the top-four in the Boys’ 100-yard freestyle, as Tristan Pake finished first (52.17), Tripp Pippin came in second (54.35), Braeden Beach in third (54.74) and Southside’s Barnes finished fourth (58.54).

Washington swept first-place in the boys and girls 500-yard freestyle, as Anna Yoder finished with a time of 6:35.06, and John Hinchey scored a 5:56.02 time. The Pam Pack also swept 200-yard relays.

The quartet of Chandler Woolard, Savanna Craft, Spruill and Yoder scored 14 points with a 2:04.01 finish. The boys’ platoon of Patrick Lovenberg, Pake, Beach and Pippin finished in 1:36.71 to win it for the Pam Pack.

Washington finished off the evening with two relay teams finishing top-2 in the 400-yard relay. Tucker Davis, Austin Waters, Graham Parker and Dawson Cox picked up a second-place finish behind the Pippin-Beach-Hinchey-Lovenberg squadron.

Head coach Kaitlyn Richards has had to balance coaching two different teams this season in both Washington and Southside swimmers. In her first year a coach, she said it was as difficult as it is rewarding.

Lovenberg, Pippin, Parker, Davis and Cox all swam their last home meet prior to the playoffs for the Pam Pack boys’ team.

Emiley Gurganus, Elizabeth Wood, Morgan Dixon and Darah Cole of Southside all swam their last meet inside the Moore Aquatic Center as well.

SENIORS: Washington’s seniors (standing left to right) Braeden Beach, Dawson Cox, Tucker Davis, Patrick Lovenberg, Patrick Graham and Tripp Pippin as well as Southside’s seniors (kneeling left to right) Morgan Dixon, Emily Gurganus, head coach Kaitlyn Richards, Darah Cole and Elizabeth Wood swam their final meets inside the Moore Aquatic Center Wednesday afternoon.(Submitted by Kaitlyn Richards)

“I think swimming is one of the best sports you can do. You can do anything to try to prepare you for swimming, but it’s not going to do much. However, if you swim it’s going to prepare you for any sport that you do. It’s an all-inclusion sport, we don’t do cuts, and we’re the only team that doesn’t do cuts. So if you just show up, you come and you try, you’re a part of a team and I think that’s great,” Richards said. “I’d tell my seniors to go out and see the world, and to not be afraid to say yes to new opportunities.”