2024 NCHSAA 1A/2A Swimming and Diving State Championship
- Date: Friday, February 9
- Location: Cary, NC
- Short Course Yards (25 yards)
- Full Meet Results
The Raleigh Charter men handily took the 1A/2A NCHSAA Championships Friday evening, claiming their first title since 2018 and winning by over 100 points. The Pine Lake Prep women edged out Raleigh Charter, winning by a smaller margin, and claiming their 3rd team title.
There are three classifications for swimming & diving in North Carolina public schools. Class 2A is the state’s smallest schools, Class 3A is the medium sized schools, and Class 4A are the biggest schools.
Team Scores
Women’s Top-5 Team Scores:
- Pine Lake Preparatory (242)
- Raleigh Charter (209)
- Lincoln Charter (130)
- NCSSM-Durham (125)
- Elkin (124)
Men’s Top-5 Team Scores:
- Raleigh Charter (294)
- NCSSM-Durham (192.5)
- Seaforth (148)
- Mountain Island Charter (141)
- Franklin Academy (115)
Women’s Meet Recap
Pine Lake Prep climbed their way to 1st place this year, a giant leap from their 4th place finish last year. But what is even more astounding is that they did it without a single individual champion, and with only two individual 2nd places.
Pine Lake Prep’s depth carried them to a top team finish by putting swimmers into nearly every final. They showed off their depth even more by both of their crowned 200 relay teams being made up of 7 different women.
Their 200 medley relay team easily beat Raleigh Charter by close to a second. Lily Storie lead off with a 31.36, Ella Deardorff followed with a 32.74 breast leg, Sydney Haun split a speedy 26.87 on fly, and Grace McCarthy scorched earth with her 23.52 free anchor. Some of the fastest splits of the meet actually came from Elkin’s 5th place relay, with a backstroke lead off of 27.46 out of Sophie Welborn and a fly split of 25.64 from Morgan Wiles.
McCarthy was the only repeat on Pine Lake Prep’s winning 200 free relay team as she teamed up with Addy McDonough, Campbell Kolbay, and Sophie Storie to claim 1st by over 2 seconds. McDonough led off with a 25.70, Kolbay followed with a 27.03, Storie a 25.93, and McCarthy with another fiery anchor split of 23.73.
Other notable splits in the field came from Welborn with a blazing 23.58 anchor and Mt Island Charter’s Emily Heil’s anchor split of 24.62.
Their 400 FR relay team put up a good fight for 1st, but that was snagged by Raleigh Charter, whose anchor leg, Kate Ragsdale, held off PLP’s anchor and took the event by only .39 seconds. Raleigh Charter’s team of Allyson Deans, Devanshi Garg, Derin Sen, and Ragsdale split 55.69, 58.86, 56.94, and 56.72, respectively. But the most impressive splits in the field were from Welborn and Brevard’s Julia Sherrill, who both swam noteworthy anchors, Welborn a 52.50 and Sherrill a 53.03.
Raleigh Charter, the team runner-ups, did not have any 1st place or 2nd place individual finishes in the meet, and they, too, relied on depth and relay performances to rank 2nd overall.
There were three different swimmers who captured double wins Friday night. Alexandra Tysinger, Abby Emrich, and Kayda Geyer all took gold in two individuals, but only one could be crowned most outstanding swimmer.
That accolade went to Tysinger, a junior at Burns High School, who was the closest to a new state record. Her 50.83 was a new personal best and just short of the record set by Christina Lappin in 2016, a 50.64. Fortunately for Tysinger, she is only a junior and will have another shot at that record next season.
She was also crowned the 50 freestyle champion once again, having won the title last year. Her 23.40 was a new best time.
Other Highlights:
- Emrich, a junior for Northwood High School, captured her two first places in the 200 FR and 100 BK. In the 200, Emrich marked a new best time in the 200, her 1:50.66 barely edging out Woods Charter’s Daisy Collins’s 1:50.77. In the 100 back, Emrich obliterated her heat by 2.5 seconds with a quick 57.60.
- Geyer, a sophomore from Union Academy High School, took first in the 200 IM and 100 BR. She notched 3 seconds off of her best time in the 200 IM, swimming a 2:04.18 to beat the field by well over a second. Her 100 BR time of 104.14 beat the field by over 2.5 seconds.
- Sophomore Sydney Burleigh of Seaforth swam a strong second half on her 100 fly, capturing gold by less than 2 tenths with a 57.42.
Men’s Meet Recap
Missouri commit Luke Nebrich won most outstanding swimmer at the 1A/2A Championships Friday evening, setting a new 1A/2A state record in the 50 freestyle. His 20.31 from the morning took down the previous mark of 20.33, a time set by Burns High School’s Jacob Jensen last year. Jensen is currently a sprint freestyler for Gardner-Webb.
Making the new record that much sweeter, Jensen’s previous record was a swim that barely edged out Nebrich’s 20.40 last year, leaving Nebrich with only a runner-up finish.
Nebrich, a senior for West Davidson, was also crowned in the 100 fly with a 50.61 and split a fiery 22.60 50 fly on his team’s 200 medley relay in the morning.
Even with Nebrich’s speed and points, West Davidson couldn’t hold a candle to the Raleigh Charter Phoenixes who won the meet by over 100 points. The Phoenixes claimed 5 total golds, with Minnesota commit Owen Von Weihe leading the way.
Von Weihe, a senior, swept the 500 FR and 200 IM, claiming his first state titles in the process. He took the 500 FR in a 4:40.11, demolishing the field by over 6 seconds, but the 200 IM required a fight in order to edge out last year’s champion, Asher Allebach of Pine Lake Prep. Both swimmers swam new best times, but junior Allebach’s 1:53.20 came up short to Von Weihe’s 1:53.05.
Von Weihe contributed even more points for the Phoenixes by teaming up with Leon Zhang, Kyle Su, and Alex Lee to sweep both the 200 medley and 400 FR Relays.
Their medley relay team beat Seaforth’s A relay by only 9 hundreths of a second, with the hero of the night being sophomore Lee who swam a 22.13 50 FR split, outsplitting Seaforth’s anchor split of 22.71. Su led off that relay with a strong 25.41 back split, Von Weihe split a quick 26.60 breast leg, and Zhang split a 24.52 on fly.
The fastest breast split in the field came from Seaforth’s relay, with Evan Hepburn splitting a 25.81, and the fastest fly split of the night came from Andrew Cook for Franklin Academy who swam a speedy 23.32. In the morning, Neibrich swam the fastest fly split of the meet with a 22.60.
Raleigh Charter’s same relay quartet won the 400 free relay by a much larger margin of over 3 seconds, with Zhang leading in a 48.39, Su following in a 48.84, Lee with a 49.26, and Von Weihe finishing with a 49.40.
Junior Jacob Pote for Christ the King Catholic posted a quick 47.43 (flying start), the fastest split of the meet.
In a tight finish, Mt. Island Charter took first in the 200 free relay with Jack Lazaroski leading in 23.16, Connor Logue splitting 22.67, Grant Berry 22.43, and Beck Armstrong 21.75. Other notable splits in the meet came from Cook with a 21.68 and Pote with a 21.73.
Other Highlights:
- Zhang, a junior for the Phoenixes, took 1st in the 200 FR with a 1:44.14.
- Armstrong, a sophomore, took 1st in the 100 BK by almost a second and a half, with a new best time of 52.85.
- Research Triangle’s Calvin Shaper, a sophomore, won the 100 BR by nearly a full second, with a 56.04
- Pote took 1st in the 100 FR, with a new best time of 47.75.
Last Year’s Team Scores:
2023 Women’s Top-5 Team Scores:
- Lincoln Charter (250)
- Elkin (209)
- Community School of Davidson (193)
- Pine Lake Prep (174)
- Union Academy (173)
2023 Men’s Top-5 Team Scores:
- Community School of Davidson (272)
- Raleigh Charter (235)
- Mountain Island Charter (188)
- NCSSM-Durham (178)
- Seaforth (127)
