The Coastal Conference meet went swimmingly for Washington as the Pam Pack girls won their fourth straight conference title and the boys rallied to take second on Wednesday in New Bern.
The Washington girls piled up 346 points en route to first place, while D.H. Conley followed with 324 points and Havelock placed third with 122.
The Pam Pack boys took second in dramatic fashion as they went into the final heat needing a second-place finish to lock up silver and got it as the relay team of Eric Lovenberg, Luke Harris, James Martin and Robert Sandy swam a 3:39.29 in the 400-meter relay to edge past West Carteret.
As a result of that, Washington finished the meet with 281 points, one point higher than the Patriots who tallied 280 and placed third. D.H. Conley won the meet with 303 points.
The day was a thrilling one for the Pack and came with quite few honors as Emily Pfeiffer was named the Coastal Conference Female Swimmer of the Year and Washington coach Spencer Pake was tabbed Coastal Conference Girls Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
With that honor Pake has now been named either the conference’s top boys or girls coach seven out of the nine years he has coached at Washington.
“It’s nice to have the coaches recognize you and the hard work that you have put in,” Pake said. “I attribute all the success to my kids and their hard work and work ethic.”
The Pam Pack girls punched the clock on Wednesday and put in a good day’s work as they dominated the conference meet by winning eight out of the 11 events.
“It all comes back to their hard work,” Pake said. “These girls are talented and they’ve been swimming together for a long time. They’ve had their ups and downs and they know what it takes to win.”
The Pack powered its way to first in the 200-yard medley relay (Kaitlyn Richards, Pfeiffer, Jessica Penhollow and Chandler Beach), 200-yard freestyle (Lanie Godley), 200-yard individual medley (Pfeiffer), 50-yard freestyle (Megan Baldwin), 100-yard butterfly (Godley), 500-yard freestyle (Pfeiffer), 200-yard freestyle relay (Godley, Penhollow, Beach and Baldwin) and the 400-yard freestyle relay (Richards, Godley, Baldwin and Pfeiffer).
Pfeiffer, who will swim for North Carolina next season, ended the meet with four first-place finishes to go along with her conference swimmer of the year honors.
“It meant a lot to her,” Pake said of the award. “She’s a great athlete and she has put in a lot of time to become that great athlete.”
Pfeiffer joins Riziki O’Monde and Ted Hodges as the only other swimmers to win that award during Pake’s reign.
In the boys meet the feisty Pam Pack swimmers tallied three first-place finishes as Harris won the 200-yard freestyle, Lovenberg was tops in the 500-yard freestyle and Mason Beach, Christian Crompton, Harris and Robert Sandy combined to win the 200-yard freestyle relay.
The Pack may have done its best work in the final event of the day as it managed to pull out second place in the 400-yard freestyle relay to hold off the Patriots and take second in the conference.
“They finished the meet strong,” Pake said of the boys. “It came down to that last relay again for a battle for second place with West Carteret. Going into it we were down one point for second place. They showed up and dropped four second off their best time all year.”