Starmount swimmers head to regional swim meet.
The Starmount High School swim team is on the rise with new Head Coach Rodney Wagoner leading the way. This season Coach Wagoner led nine women and four men on the Starmount Swim Team. The SHS women’s team consisted of Adan Lakey (SR), Rashell Fuentes (SR), Morgan Lawson (SR), Olivia Ray (JR), Tania Lorenzo (JR), Hannah Staes (JR), Mattie Tavano (JR), Jillian Clanton (SO), and Olivia Ireland (SO). The SHS men’s team consisted of Peyton Ponce de Leon (JR), Kendall Dickerson (JR), Ashton Hartzog (FR) and Ryan King (FR).The swim season started out slow for Coach Wagoner and the Rams, finishing in third place for the first two meets of the season. The SHS swim team then consistently improved by cutting their times throughout the season. Starmount placed second in three meets throughout the season. The Rams finished in third place in the Northwest 1A Conference Championship meet, with Elkin having 145 points, Mt. Airy 82 and Starmount 79. Starmount placed five swimmers on all-conference and Peyton Ponce de Leon was named the Northwest 1A Male Swimmer of the year.
For the first time in 13 years, Starmount High School sent nine swimmers to the NCHSAA State 1A/2A Regionals and one swimmer to the NCHSAA 1A/2A State Finals. The Regional competition was held at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Adan Lakey, Morgan Lawson, Olivia Ray, Olivia Ireland, and Hannah Staes advanced to the Regional competition in Greensboro. All 4 of the boys advanced to Regionals. The SHS Women’s team for the 200 yard medley relay, consisted of Adan Lakey, Morgan Lawson, Olivia Ray and Hannah Staes. They finished 20th in the event, with a time of (2:37.32). Olivia Ray, Olivia Ireland, Hannah Staes and Morgan Lawson made up the relay team for 200 yard freestyle relay and the 400 yard freestyle relay. They finished in 16th and 15th places, with times of (2:10.12) and (5:10.85) respectively. Olivia Ray competed individually in the 100 yard freestyle and finished in 18th place with a time of (1:09.38). In the history of Starmount High School, the Men’s team has never had a qualifier for regionals, individually or as a team. Coach Wagoner had three men to qualify individually for NCHSAA Regionals, and also a relay team in the 200 yard freestyle and the 400 yard freestyle. The individual qualifiers were Kendall Dickerson in the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle, Ashton Hartzog in the 100 yard butterfly and Peyton Ponce de Leon in the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard butterfly. Dickerson finished 14th with a time of (:25.48) in the 50 yard freestyle and 18th in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of (1:00.00). Ashton Hartzog competed in the 100 yard butterfly and finished in 16th place with a time of (1:19.82). The best individual performance for Coach Wagoner and the Rams, was by Peyton Ponce de Leon. Ponce de Leon competed in the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard butterfly. He finished in first place for the 200 yard freestyle with a time of (1:48.02), which earned him a spot in the state finals as an overall number 2 seed in the 1A/2A Division. He also won his 100 yard butterfly event with a time of 0:52.00 and a number three seed for the 1A/2A state finals. Rounding out the regional swim, was the men’s 200 yard freestyle relay team led by Peyton Ponce de Leon. Ponce de Leon started the relay with a time of (:22.57). Rounding out the rest of the relay team was Ashton Hartzog, Kendall Dickerson and Ryan King. They finished in 18th place with a time of (1:52.21) for the 200 yard relay. The relay team also competed in the 400 yard freestyle relay and finished in 13th place with a time of (4:20.06). The men’s relay team finished in 15th place out of 28 teams competing at the regional competition.
On Feb. 12, Coach Wagoner and Peyton Ponce de Leon, headed out to Triangle Aquatic Center in Raleigh for the NCHSAA 1A/2A State Swim Finals competition. Ponce de Leon’s first event of the day came in the morning preliminaries with the 200 yard freestyle. He finished the event in third place with a time of (1:48.11), securing his spot in the evening finals. His second event was in the 100 yard butterfly preliminaries, where he finished in second place with a time of (:52.23), which also secured his spot in the evening finals. Peyton’s first final came up in the 4th event of the evening, with the 200 yard freestyle. Ponce de Leon finished 3rd in the state 1A/2A final for the 200 yard freestyle, with a time of (1:46.72). For his final event of the evening, he finished in second place in the 1A/2A state final for the 100 yard butterfly, with a time of (:51.65).
“The Starmount High School swim team has made long strokes and great improvements with the 2021-2022 men’s and women’s teams. The end of the season was very exciting and helped to build excitement and anticipation for future Ram swimmers. Things are looking up for the Starmount Swim team. They would also like to thank the Yadkin YMCA for allowing them to use their facilities to practice,” said the team’s coach.