WELLSBURG, W.Va. – Caroline Riggs snapped two Region I and Brooke High pool records in the 200 free (1:52.30) and the 100 butterfly (58.22) to help lead Morgantown to a second-place overall finish at the Region I tournament in Wellsburg.
Riggs, also part of the 200 and 400 free relay teams, also led those teams to set new records.
The sophomore picked up the first win for Morgantown in the 200 free, breaking Courtney Deem’s 2015 record by nearly two seconds. Riggs edged Wheeling Park’s Abby Turner (1:53.86) for the win.
Riggs got the second individual win for the girls’ team in the 100 fly, breaking Grace Cox’s Region I record (59.47) and Casadie DiBetta’s pool record (58.91) by slim margins. Teammate Katelyn Blosser was behind her to place second at 1:04.10.
Delaney Householder secured a first-place finish in the 500 free, easily winning by a large margin at 5:18.43.
Morgantown’s A team in the 200 free relay took first by five seconds, beating their own schools’ record by a fraction of a second at 1:43.36. Previous records were set at 1:43.91 for regionals and 1:43.83 for the pool. The 400 free A team then followed up with another record-shattering finish at 3:45.17, breaking MHS’s regionals time (3:47.29) and St. Clairsville’s pool time (3:46.16).
Despite the solid performances, Wheeling Park was able to edge MHS by one point to win the Region I title. Parkersburg came in 3rd with 71 points.
On the boys’ side, Frankie McCutchan picked up the first win of the day for University with a 1:49.31 finish in the 200 free, winning easily. Morgantown’s Preston Householder brought another first-place finish back to Mon County with a win in the 200 IM, edging Parkersburg’s Dennis Ramsay at 2:13.63.
Zach Ribas picked up UHS’s second win of the day with a fractional win over WCCHS’ Caden Ondrejko, clocking 57.78 over Ondrejko’s 57.85. McCutchan secured another win in the 500 free, setting a regional record at 4:52.95, breaking Charles Schellhase’s 2018 record of 5:01.50.
Carter Redelman brought another win to MHS with a 1:02.88 finish in the 100 back to round out the wins for the Mohigans.
Morgantown finished third overall with a score of 70 behind Parkersburg with 97 points and Wheeling Park with 85.
Girls’ basketball
Preston 42, Washington 34
KINGWOOD, W.Va. – After being locked at 16 at the half, Preston pulled away to defeat Washington 42-34 to cap their regular season.
The Knights jumped out to an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Patriots were able to stymie PHS’s offense in the second, outscoring them 8-5 to knot the score at halftime. Preston kicked into high gear in the second half, hitting 26 points to WHS’s 18 to secure the win.
“We did not shoot the ball well,” PHS coach Brian Miller said. “We shot 17% for the game. We did however do an outstanding job on the offensive rebounds; got enough rebounds to get back up and win.”
Michelle Thomas led the Knights, securing a double-double in the process with 13 points and 21 rebounds. Carsynn Sines added 10 points.
With her 21 boards, Thomas became Preston High’s all-time leading rebounder for a career breaking the previous record held by Makenzie Friend with 636.
Boys’ basketball
Trinity 49, Keyser 38
KEYSER, W.Va. – Trinity kicked off its two-day Eastern Panhandle tour with Keyser, pulling off an 11-point, 49-38, victory led by James Bourne with 16 points.
The Warriors (7-4) jumped out to a big 19-6 lead at the end of the first quarter and held a 14 point lead going into halftime at 27-13. The Golden Tornado cut the deficit slightly in the third to 11, but the Warriors held onto the lead through the final stanza for the win.
Backing up Bourne were Gavin Jackson and Jaylon Hill who combined for 18 points with nine each.
Derrick Broadwater paced Keyser with 11 points.
“Today we came out and played hard against a scrappy Keyser team,” TCS coach Rick Hill said. “We didn’t play our best offensively or defensively but we came away with the win. We executed down the stretch and did the things we needed to do to win the game. Offensively we also had a balanced scoring attack and defensively I thought we communicated much better
The Warriors next face Berkeley Springs Sunday at 5 p.m. It’s the team’s final regular-season road game before a three-game, four-day homestand to end the season.
