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WHEELING – The boys’ and girls’ swim teams at Linsly know what success is all about. For the past four years, the girls have won the OVAC title and the boys were crowned champions for the past six. The success from the past continued to show Thursday as the Cadets boys captured a victory against Weir while the girls claimed victories against Weir, Bellaire and East Richland Christian.
“We have had a lot of good kids who were willing to work hard and do what it took over breaks and put in the effort so they swam well when it came down to the big meets,” Cadets coach Bill Brubaker said about the past success for the Linsly swimming programs. “So it’s just been a good run.”
For this year’s Cadets swim squads, it has been a pretty solid year as well. The boys hold a 10-0 record in dual meets while the girls are a strong 9-2, with losses came to Parkersburg and Wheeling Park.
“Because of the way we do our break, this is the first time we’ve been competitive in the water in three weeks,” Brubaker said. “So there are some things that we did well and some things that we forgot and need to work on to get focused on the OVAC meet coming up in three weeks from (Saturday).”
There may have been very little Brubaker saw that needed improvement as the girls’ team took first place in nine of the 11 events while the boys swept by winning all 11.
For the girls, the Cadets got off to a fast start as the 200 medley relay team of Sydney West, Eve Scarpone, Carleigh West and Samantha Schaal won the first event of the day in a time of 2:09.14.
Scarpone had very little time to rest as she swam to gold in the next event, the 200 freestyle in a blistering time of 2:11.85, winning by almost a minute.
Carleigh West won gold in all of the events that she competed in including the 200 IM, 100 butterfly and the 400 freestyle relay that included Soma Hannon, America Nuckles-Polen and Katelynne Spurrier.
Sydney West also was top dog in all of her events which were the 200 freestyle relay including Nuckles-Polen, Scarpone and Samantha Schaal, 100 backstroke and 100 breaststroke.
Weir won its first event in the 500 freestyle as Kaitlyn Stumpf swam to victory lane with a time of 6:09.05.
“I know my team is tired. We are kind of in the middle of the training season,” Red Riders coach Heather Fairchild said.
“It’s the part of the season where we’re working toward dual meets, but really our big focus is at the end of the year. Right now, we’re tired, we’re swimming tired, but they’re still showing a lot of heart and are still having fast times, which is great.”
St. Clairsville claimed a first-place finish in Monica Van Cleven as she swam a 1:03.67 in the 100 freestyle. East Richland Christian’s lone swimmer, Alexis Causey finished second place in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke.
On the boys’ side, the 200 medley team of Tre Taylor, Drew Bastian, Liam McNeil and Kevin Pietz outlasted a strong Weir relay team, swimming to victory in 1:54.93.
Taylor also was victorious in the 200 freestyle relay along with Bastian, McNeil and Cameron Thompson and 100 yard breaststroke. Individually, Bastian won the 50 freestyle (23.71) and 100 backstroke (1:05.95). McNeil claimed gold in the 200 IM in 2:26.13 and was part of the 400 freestyle relay team including Reese Boyd, Pietz and Thompson.
Pietz won the 100 butterfly (58.38) while Boyd won the 500 freestyle (5.27.30) and 200 freestyle (2:01.19).
“We have six dual meets left,” Brubaker said. “Our goals are not so much to win the meets, but to swim well and work on what we need to do to do well at OVACs.”