Mount Airy’s boys and girls’ swim teams both finished as Northwest 1A Conference Runner-Up at Thursday’s Championship meet.
Granite Bears Athletics
PILOT MOUNTAIN — Much like the Foothills 2A Conference Championship the night before, the Northwest 1A Conference Swimming Championship was dominated by Surry County athletes.
Thursday’s championship meet, held at the Armfield Civic Center, featured Mount Airy, Elkin, Starmount, Alleghany and East Wilkes. South Stokes and North Stokes did not send representatives for the boys or girls competition.
The Buckin’ Elks of Elkin High School won both team championships, while both of Mount Airy’s swim teams finished the conference tournament as NW1A Conference Runners-Up.
Elkin’s Diana McCulloch was named Girls Coach of the Year, and the Buckin’ Elks’ Sophie Welborn was named Female Swimmer of the Year. For the boys, Mount Airy’s Jay Williams was named Coach of the Year.
Starmount’s Peyton Ponce de Leon was named Male Swimmer of the Year.
Girls results
1. Elkin Buckin’ Elks 145
2. Mount Airy Granite Bears 82
3. Starmount Rams 79
4. East Wilkes Cardinals 61
5. Alleghany Trojans 40
Elkin’s girls ran away with the conference meet by winning 10-of-11 events.
The Buckin’ Elks entered the Northwest 1A Conference with an intimidating resume. Elkin’s girls finished the 2020-21 season as runners-up in the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A/2A State Championship, and the relay team of Sophie Welborn, Morgan Wiles, Mattie Wells and Amelia Presley captured one state championship and two silver medals.
Welborn, who was named NW1A Female Swimmer of the Year, won four gold medals at the conference championship. Individually, Welborn took home the conference titles in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. She teamed with Wiles, Presley and Bronwyn Sloop to win the 400 freestyle relay, then won the 200 freestyle relay with Wells, Sloop and Presley Baker.
The sole race not won by Elkin was the 100 breaststroke. East Wilkes’ Sedessa Hatcher won the race with a time of 1:12.50, which was just .37 seconds faster than the silver medalist. Elkin’s Wells finished second with a time of 1:12.87, followed by Mount Airy’s Jessica Sawyers at 1:16.89.
Sawyers finished in the top three of all four of her events at the conference championship. Individually, the Granite Bear finished second in the 100 freestyle at 58.12 seconds and was third in the 100 backstroke.
Sawyers was part of a relay team that earned two silver medals. The squad of Sawyers, Laura Livengood, Eleanor Edwards and Emma Bowman finished the 200 medley relay in 2:23.63 and completed the 400 freestyle relay in 4:34.20.
Bowman, like Sawyers, had four top-3 finishes. In addition to the two relays, Bowman took second in the 50 freestyle with a time of 30.07 seconds, and finished third in the 100 freestyle at 1:09.63.
Livengood and Edwards each had a third-place finish to go with their two silver relay medals. Edwards finished third in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:25.86, and Livengood took third in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:47.61.
Boys results
1. Elkin Buckin’ Elks 176
2. Mount Airy Granite Bears 141
3. Starmount Rams 62
4. Alleghany Trojans 19
The boys competition was dominated by Elkin and Mount Airy.
Although the Elkin boys didn’t finish as high as the girls did in the 2021 1A/2A State Championship, the Buckin’ Elks still had the highest finish of any traditional 1A school at sixth.
Elkin won 6-of-11 events at the NW1A Championship. Starmount and Mount Airy each won two, and Alleghany won one.
Starmount’s Peyton Ponce de Leon, the NW1A Male Swimmer of the Year, had both of the Rams’ wins and helped the school finish third in two relay races. Individually, Ponce de Leon finished first in the 100 and 200 freestyles. He teamed with Ashton Hartzog, Kendall Dickerson and Ryan King in both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
Mount Airy had a top-3 finish in 8-of-11 events. Junior Matheson Williams had both of the Bears’ victories, doing so in the 500 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Williams won the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:24.53 and the 100 backstroke 58.04 seconds.
Williams was part of two relay teams that finished in second place. He teamed with Noah Moore, Collin Phillips and Hayden Bender to finish the 200 medley relay in 2:09.69, and teamed with Moore, Peter Cooke and Martin Cooke to complete the 400 freestyle relay in 3:45.94.
Two other Mount Airy relay teams finished in the top three of the boys competition. Bender, Phillips, Peter Cooke and Martin Cooke finished second in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:48.54; Noah Khuri, Nolan Haynes, Isaac Griffith and Luke Golding finished third in the 200 medley relay with a time of 2:38.93.
Martin Cooke added two top-3 finishes for Mount Airy. He finished second in the 200 freestyle at 2:02.35, and third in the 100 backstroke at 1:02.17.
Moore, Khuri and Peter Cooke rounded out Mount Airy’s podium finishes with one third-place finish each: Moore in the 200 individual medley with a time of 3:00.07, Khuri in the 500 freestyle at 7:39.77, and Peter Cooke in the 50 freestyle at 26.26 seconds.
Reach Cory on Twitter @MrCoryLeeSmith