One week after the team made school history with its first-ever sweep of the Coastal Conference meet, the Washington girls team garnered 297 points to nab silver while the boys tallied 98 points to place ninth at the regional meet.
“I was really proud of the way everybody swam,” Washington swim coach Spencer Pake said. “They showed up pumped up from the get-go and they pulled together as a team and had a great showing.”
Chapel Hill won the girls’ meet with 464 points while Cardinal Gibbons tallied 443 points to take gold in the boys’ meet.
In order to advance to Thursday’s state meet at the Triangle Aquatics Center in Cary Pam Pack swimmers had to place in the top 12 in their respective events. On Saturday, Washington competed in 19 events and advanced in 16 of them.
Coming into the competition Pake felt like his girls’ team had the potential to put on a strong showing and he was right as they racked up plenty of gold, silver and bronze medals.
Emily Pfeiffer earned two individual first-place finishes as she swam a 2:11.04 in the 200-yard individual medley and a 1:07.19 in the 100-yard breastroke to beat all competitors. Pfeiffer also teamed up with Coastal Conference Female Swimmer of the Year Riziki Omonde, Megan Baldwin and Lanie Godley to take first in the 200-yard freestyle relay with at time of 1:43.73. Baldwin also grabbed a fourth place finish in the 100-yard breastroke with a time of 1:08.50.
In the 400-yard freestyle relay Pfeiffer, Omonde, Godley and Jessica Penhollow combined to swim a 3:49.27 and place second. Chandler Beach, Baldwin, Penhollow and Kaitlyn Richards picked up a third-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay by completing the event in 1:59.53.
“On the girls side everything went right,” Pake said. “Everybody stepped up and had their best times of the season.”
Washington was able to earn a silver and bronze in the 200-yard freestyle as Godley (2:03.25) finished right ahead of Omonde (2:03.42). Omonde earned the Pack another third-place standing when she finished the 100-yard freestyle in 55:42.
Baldwin was dynamic in the 50-yard freestyle as she completed the event in 25:29 to earn second while Godley was equally as good taking second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:03.29.
Beach picked up more points for the Pack as she completed the 200-yard individual medley in 2:27.93 and Washington added more points when Penhollow took 10th place in the 50-yard freestyle (27.61) and the 100-yard freestyle (59.76). Beach also placed fourth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:27.93).
In the 500-yard freestyle Beach (6:04.51) placed eighth and topped her teammate Richards (6.08.88) by one spot.
In the boys meet Gabe Shepard was phenomenal as he placed third in the 100-yard backstroke (57.75) while joining up with Robert Sandy, James Martin and Luke Harris to place fifth in the 400-yard relay (3:98.98). Shepard also advanced to state in the 200-yard individual medley where he swam a 2:13.04 to place eighth.
All of Washington’s relays swam strong races as Shepard, Crozier, Sandy and Coleman Smithwick placed seventh in the 200-yard medley relay (1:52.31) and Sandy, Martin, Smithwick and Harris took 10th in the 200-yard freestyle relay (1:39.90).
“The boys had some really good swims. All three of the boys’ relays qualified for state,” Pake said. “They had to work hard to do that because there is some really good competition there.”