CHARLOTTESVILLE — The Eastern Hancock boys and girls swim teams have a theme: #Thieves. And with another impressive outing on Thursday night with winning team and individual performances, it looks like they’ll be able to back the theme up come sectional time.
As a team, the Eastern Hancock girls beat Bishop Chatard 84-83, while the boys won 89-78.
“You know, as a team of 17 to beat a team of 46, I’m just proud of how we swam tonight from top to bottom,” Royals coach Derek McCormick said afterward. “We knew we had a shot to win if we swam the way I know they can, and they came out and did it.”
The winning started early as the boys and girls teams both won the 200-yard medley relay. The boys team of Chris Walton, Garret Henderson, Lane Coffin, and Elijah Harris set a school record, winning the event in 1:53.76. The same four swimmers would end the night the way they started, by setting a school record in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:40.21.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryIndividual winners for the girls included Elise Huffman in the 200 and 500 freestyles, Tatum Profitt in the 200 IM, Ellie Griesmeyer in the 50 and 100 freestyle, and Megan Marcum in the 100 breaststroke.
“Our girls team only has eight swimmers, so I can’t single out any of them for standing out tonight. Every girl on our team swam a bit faster than normal tonight,” McCormick said.
Harris broke another school record individually in the 100 freestyle, swimming a time of 52.43 seconds to break his own record set last season. He also swam a 23.61 to win the 50 freestyle, which was only .01 seconds off tying his own school record in that event as well.
Other individual winners for the boys were Walton, who won the 500 freestyle and 100 yard backstroke, and Coffin in the 200 IM.
“With our heaviest training being this past week, I wasn’t really expecting record-breaking performances tonight,” McCormick said. “But they came out pretty hard tonight.”
In high school swimming, the regular season is spent determining the best way to prepare to have the team peaking by sectional time, and McCormick thinks his Royals are well on their way.
“No one expects us to finish top-8 in sectional races. If we just keep working hard and getting better with our technique, we are going to take plenty of podium spots from teams that don’t see us coming,” he said.
