St. Joseph's boys, Bishop England girls win AAA swim state championships
St. Joe's wins seventh straight title; Bishops make it two in a row
Columbia – St. Joseph’s swim head coach Becky Van Evera says she doesn’t keep up with real time scoring during her boys and girls teams’ meets. So she was waiting in anticipation for the scores for the AAA boys state meet to be announced at the University of South Carolina Natatorium on October 14.
So when the Knights were announced as the winner with 406 points to 397 for second-place Greer Middle College, Van Evera had something of a hard time taking it all in.
“I don’t look at scores during the meet, except when they post them at the two breaks, so I was overwhelmed when they announced us as winner and so very happy for this large group of seniors to go out with having won state titles every year they have been on our team,” Van Evera said. “That was a special moment. This team is a family and we have worked to make it a place that swimmers of all levels can excel to their full potential, because as evidenced by this win it takes the whole “team” to accomplish this.”
Not only did this group of St. Joseph’s seniors go out with championships in each year of high school, but so did the three previous senior classes. That’s right. This was the seventh straight state tittle for the Knights boys program.
“It is a bit surreal,” Van Evera said. “We knew going in it would be a very close meet, and that it would take every swimmer and every swim with no mistakes to even have a chance at it.”
On the girls side, Bishop England won its second straight title with a comfortable victory. The Battling Bishops finished first with 418 points, followed by Gray Collegiate with 359, St. Joseph’s with 334 and Oceanside Collegiate and Daniel both with 262.
“It means a lot to win it two years in a row,” said Bishop England head coach Rose Van Metre. “It's incredible because it’s such a hard thing to do. The kids work hard, they support one another. We have a very good team atmosphere.
“We lost our captain from last year (Lindsay Burbage, who is now swimming at Massachusetts). Our captains really stepped up to the plate and really got the team together. I knew it (repeating) was a possibility. Our kids are strong.”
On the boys side, St. Joseph’s won the meet without winning a single event.
“We traveled 16 swimmers and 15 scored points for us,” Van Evera said. “You can win a meet like this with grabbing lots of the fourth- and 10th-place finishes. That is what we accomplished.”
Sophomore Walker Simpson was the leading scorer for the Knights with 42 points. Simpson finished second in both 200-meter individual medley and the 500 freestyle while swimming a leg on the third-place 400 freestyle relay team.
Junior Owen Byrd scored 38 points, finishing fourth in both the 200 IM and the 500 free. He helped the 200 medley relay to a fourth-place finish and the 400 free relay to third place. .Senior Connor Farrell scored 34.5 points, finishing fourth in the 100 fly and seventh in the 200 IM, while swimming on the medley and 400 free relay teams.
Sophomore Paul Do scored 33 points, finishing fifth in the 500 free and eighth in the 200 free. Freshman Jack Weston and junior Evan Harmon both scored 32 points Weston finished sixth in the 200 free and eighth in the 100 backstroke while swimming a leg on the sixth-place 200 free relay team. Harmon was sixth in the 100 breaststroke and eighth in the 50 free while swimming legs on the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relay.
“This year we really focused on what it means to be part of the team, to give your best efforts for the greater good of the whole group,” Van Evera said. “We were focusing on individual swims versus outcomes.”
Bishop England finished third with 317 points, Academic Magnet fourth with 300 and Christ Church fifth with 270.
In the girls meet, Bishop England gained 50 points from what it was seeded.
“Our mantra was to go to state and bring everything that we have,” Van Etre said. “Our swimmers’ times remained the same or dropped considerably. They outperformed what we were seeded.
. “It's a huge differential. That's a lot of points to make up in a meet. That'just tells you how great the girls swam.”
Ellie Chalupsky led the Bishops by winning two individual events and swimming legs on two winning relay teams. Chalupsky won the 100 butterfly and the 100 back, while swimming legs on the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay.
Joining Chalupsky on the 200 relay team are Mia Devito, Mackenzie LaVeen and Zoe Dewitt. Devito, Dewitt and Carley Foust swam legs on the 400 relay team.
Devito finished second in the 500 free and third in the 100 free, while Dewitt was third in the 50 free.
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