Albemarle’s girls swim team was looking for a little bit of a breakthrough performance.
They couldn’t have picked a much better time to have it.
Thursday in the Ben Hair swim meet, the Patriots outpaced second place Monacan with 401.5 points to Monacan’s 356 to wrap up the Ben Hair team championship.
“I think just the energy helped us — a lot of us have friends on club teams that we swim with year round and being able to race like that built up the fun, competitive spirit of it,” said Albemarle captain Claire Moody.
The Patriots got a huge boost from Avery Huang, who posted wins in the 200 IM and 500 free while also swimming a leg of the championship sealing 400 free relay squad, teaming up with Moody, Maddie Wells and Sophia Yu to pick up that critical win that was also a key state cut for the quartet. Moody won the 100 back and finished second behind Huang in the 200 IM.
“We have been not quite as energetic at the past couple of meets but we really brought it this meet,” Moody said. “It was just a new level.”
The Patriots also had a pair of runner-up finishes in the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. Maddie Wells was the runner-up in the 200 free and seventh in the 100 fly. Rachel Murray took third in the 50 free while Morgan Breza took third in the 500 free. Audrey Kashatus was fourth in the 500 free and Sophia Yu was the runner-up in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 100 fly.
While Monacan took, second, Monticello took a big step forward to take third place, moving up from fifth place a year ago. The Mustangs got there with a double win by Athena Vanyo in the 100 butterfly and 100 free. Elisabeth Bendall won the 100 breast and took fifth in the 200 IM while Izzy Bradley was the runner-up in the 50-free and 100-back.
Vanyo picked up the 100 free win without a seed time, laying down the winning finish in an early heat. A title in the 200 freestyle relay also helped power Monticello.
“Last year I didn’t win an event at Ben Hair and now I’m part of a winning relay and won an individual and that was really cool,” Bendall said. “It’s nice to see all the hard work pay off.”
The Mustangs are in position to contend for a state title with Vanyo, Bradley and Bendall as the core and key pieces like Kayleigh Stebbins in the mix.
Western Albemarle finished fourth as a team with Kathryn Burr taking fourth in the 200 free and fourth in the 100 fly while Julie Addison took fourth in the 200 IM and fourth in the 100 back.
Fluvanna County finished fifth overall, led by Abigail Fuller who won the 50 free and took second in the 100 free.
