Lenoir- The East Burke swimming teams made history as both Cavalier teams won the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A Conference championship in the same season this past Tuesday at the Lenoir Aquatic Center.
The Cavaliers, repeating from last season's CVAC championship win and capturing their fourth conference title in a span of 14 seasons as a 2A school, recorded 213 points followed by West Caldwell (114), Lincolnton (109), West Lincoln (37), and Newton-Conover (24).
The Lady Cavaliers, falling by one point to Newton-Conover at last year's CVAC championship meet, outscored the Lady Red Devils 187-133 with West Caldwell (127), West Lincoln (114), and Lincolnton (96) finishing behind in the final team standings.
The East Burke boys repeated in winning the 200 medley relay (2:10.54; Zane Wise, Jacob Gersh, Taylor Lennex, Tristan Carswell), 100 freestyle (1:02.28; Carswell), 500 freestyle (6:32.62; Lennex), 100 breaststroke (1:19.77; Gersh), and the 400 freestyle relay (4:19.58; Lennex, Noah Ramsey, Gersh, Carswell).
The Cavaliers also captured the 200 freestyle relay (1:55.69; Lennex, Ramsey, Gersh, Carswell) and the 200 individual medley (2:55.04; Ramsey).
"Our program has a legacy of greatness and this year's team didn't disappoint," said East Burke swimming coach Haley Oxentine.
"Coach (Nikki) Stamey and I were both worried about how we were going to build the program after four of our eight male swimmers from last year graduated, we were able to keep our momentum going with the addition of four new swimmers this season."
Major improvements were accomplished by the Lady Cavaliers led by Gracie Hall winning the 200 individual medley (3:25.01) and 100 freestyle (1:10.59) after finishing third and fourth respectively at last year's CVAC championship meet.
The Lady Cavaliers also repeated in winning the 400 freestyle relay (5:08.37; Marabeth Huffman, Freyja Lemaire, Grace Hammack, Hall) with Huffman adding a win in the 100 backstroke (1:21.06).
Gracie Stamey (200 IM, 100 fly 2nd), Alia Riley (100 free, 100 back 3rd), and Ella Oxentine (500 free 3rd) were other key Lady Cavalier swimmers.
"The ladies decided early on that winning the conference title was our ultimate goal," said Oxentine.
"(They) came out this year determined to persevere from that disappointing shortfall last season."
Both teams now look to continue the momentum into the 1A/2A western regional meet on February 4th at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center.
"We both (as coaches) look forward to next week's regional meet and hope that we can advance our swimmers to the state meet. We are very proud of both teams and wish them much success in the rest of the swimming season."
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