By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — There is strength in numbers when it comes to competitive team swimming and Watauga demonstrated just that on Jan. 14 against University Christian and Ashe County at the Watauga County Parks and Recreation Center.
A good example: the Pioneers swept the first ten places in the Women’s 50 Free and the first six spots in the Men’s 50 Free. The women were led by No. 1 Athena Elliott (senior, 26.01), No. 2 Merritt Powell (freshman, 26.90) and No. 3 Chessy Martin (sophomore, 27.32).
In the Men’s 50 Free, the Pioneers were championed by No. 1 Lanson Gilbert (sophomore, 22.55), No. 2 Silas Powell (senior, 23.57) and No. 3 Aiden Culpepper (freshman, 26.35).
While Watauga celebrated Senior Night with 18 graduating seniors, including six on the men’s side led by consistently strong performers Silas Powell and Michael Makdad, one of the up and comers for the Pioneers is Culpepper, the freshman, who added an individual No. 1 finish in the Men’s 200 Free with a 31 second gap to the No. 2 finisher, as well as competed in two No. 1 relays. He led off the Men’s 200 Freestyle Relay that also included Powell, Makdad and Gilbert, then led off the last race of the night, the Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay, passing the baton to Stacy Eggers, Powell, and Gilbert to finish a full 15 seconds ahead of No. 2 University Christian.
The strength in numbers theme played itself out in other events, too. For example, Watauga captured six of the top seven places in the Women’s 100 Breaststroke, led by No. 1 Addie Wilson (junior, 1:16.49) and No. 2 Zoe Critcher (junior, 1:25.04).
Late in the evening (Event 17), Watauga again sported strong numbers by capturing the top five spots in the Women’s 200 Freestyle Relay, an event that featured 10 relay teams, eight of which were representing the Pioneers — or 24 swimmers in all competing in just that one event.
Watauga head coach David Gragg seemed happy with the performance in spite of the team challenges.
“Overall, we had a pretty good night. The team has been battling illness and studying for exams, so it has been a tough week,” said Gragg. “Add in a quick turnaround from the meet on Saturday (Jan. 10), and I thought we had some good swims tonight.
“I split up several of the relays just to see what we could do if we needed to make changes during the next few weeks,” Gragg shared.” Some went over well, others not as much. Heading into the conference meet, I feel the women have a strong chance to defend their title. We have a lot of depth other teams are not as fortunate to have.
“The men will have a tougher challenge since our numbers are somewhat limited,” the longtime Pioneer head coach added. “We are fortunate that several of our athletes are on the local club team and their Senior level coach, Ashley Turak, was an All-American swimmer at Indiana. She has picked up their training and worked them hard the past few months. If the team can get — or stay — healthy, that will benefit us a lot as we head into the next competitions.”
TEAM SCORES – MEN
- Watauga 75, University Christian 61
- Watauga 86, Ashe County 9
- University Christian 92, Ashe County 15
TEAM SCORES – WOMEN
- Watauga 113, University Christian 44
- Watauga 127, Ashe County 11
- University Christian 92, Ashe County 15
FULL RESULTS
