Parkersburg High School swimmer Morgan Metz competes in the 500 free during a quad meet Monday night at the Boys & Girls Club of Parkersburg. Metz took first place in the event. (Photo by Aaron Lee)
PARKERSBURG — To kick off the Rivalry Week festivities, Parkersburg South hosted a Parkersburg Boys & Girls Club swim meet. In addition to the Big Reds, Marietta and Warren, two schools that also use the Boys & Girls Club as their home pool, competed. In the boys and girls competitions, the Patriots won the most events and came away with the victory.
Coincidentally, the boys and girls ended up in the same order, with South taking first place followed by Parkersburg, Warren and Marietta.
On the girls side, South won with a total of 70 points compared to Parkersburg’s 57. The Patriots won two of the three relays, both with the same group of swimmers. The group of Chesney Douglas, Camryn McLean, Jordan Claypool and Fayde Haver won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:06. They took first in the 200 free relay as well, clocking 1:52.
In addition to winning the relay races, Claypool and McLean each captured two individual titles of their own. Claypool won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:59, and he also won the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:14. McLean won the 200 backstroke (2:33) and 100 backstroke (1:12).
The Big Reds girls team won three events at the meet: the 100 butterfly, 500 freestyle, and 400 freestyle relay. Lily Jones took the 100 butterfly title with a time of 1:20. Morgan Metz won the 500 free in one of the most exciting performances of the day. She finished the 20th pool lengths in 6:18. The next closest swimmer finished about two minutes later. Parkersburg won the 400 freestyle relay, with the team of Alexa Maher, Jones, Jaylen Kalica and Metz clocking 4:35.
Maddie Lovejoy of Marietta captured two titles, the 50 and 100 freestyle. She won the former with a time of 27.83 and the latter with a time of 1:02.
The Patriots boys swim team won with a total of 74 points compared to 57 for second-place Parkersburg. The South won seven events, including two stages. In the 200 medley relay, the team of Quade Harris, Anthony Ott, Killian Koster and Connor Roberts finished in 1:51 to take home the gold medal. Trading Roberts for Maddox Ryder in the 400 free relay, the Patriots took first with a time of 3:41.
Ott won two events of his own: the 200 freestyle (1:58) and 100 backstroke (0:59). Harris also captured two singles titles. He won the 200m butterfly, coming in 2:15, and the 100m butterfly in 59 seconds. Rader took first place in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:12.
Parkersburg won two events at the boys meet. The Big Reds’ Brayden Lotton won the 500 free in 5:46. The relay team of Elliot Lambert, Eli Brown, Cooper Morris and Matthew James won the 200 freestyle, clocking 1:42.
The Warren Warriors grabbed the top two spots on the day, both coming from Mason Francis. Francis won the 50 and 100 freestyle. He won the 50 in just 21 seconds, and took first place in the 100 by finishing in 49 seconds.
Patriots coach Ryan Radcliffe described the lead-up to the game, “We had a big weekend of travel, we went to Geneva, Ohio, and had a final prep meet there, so we were there on Friday night, and didn’t get home until midnight on Saturday. I knew they were going to be tired, it’s a quick turnaround after a stressful meet.” Like this, but it’s a rivalry type meet, you know, all the local teams, so these kids all know each other.
He completed, “It’s good, we try to do it every year. This is the first time they’ve incorporated it into rivalry week, but we always have a local meet during a weeknight. Weekend meets are tough with the kids in school, especially on Monday, but I I think our kids responded as well as they could. There were some good things and some bad things, things we have to improve on, but for the most part the effort was there. I had some places where some kids were chasing it too much. It ended up being a good thing. “It was a good meeting.”
When asked if there was a particular event that stood out, Radcliffe responded, “Camryn McLean had a great meet. She’s a freshman, and she came here and won both of her individual events. We put her in the 100 backstroke, which wasn’t one of her best events, and at first she was a little apprehensive about swimming the backstroke,” she said. “But we needed to try her out and see what she could do. We had confidence in her, and for a freshman to step up and be able to take on a challenge like that head-on and come out on top is very impressive. So congratulations to her on that.”
The swimmers from Parkersburg Southern made a splash at the recent quad meet, sweeping the competition and securing victories in all events. Their stellar performance not only highlighted their individual talent, but also demonstrated the strength of their team as a whole. With impressive times and unwavering determination, the Parkersburg Southern swimmers left a lasting impression on the competition and asserted their dominance in the pool. Their achievements have undoubtedly reaffirmed their position as formidable contenders in the swimming community.