MORGANTOWN — Swimmers from all areas of the state of West Virginia will gather at Mylan Park this week for the annual WVSSAC state swim meet, held at Mylan Aquatic Center.
Both Morgantown and University High Schools will send swimmers into the water to fight for the title of state champion (individual and team) across two days of competition and 22 events.
Last year, all 22 events held preliminary races on day one of the meet, with finals being held on day two. This year events 1-12 with have preliminaries and finals on day one, and events 13-22 will do the same on day two. Each day will have six races run for both the boys and girls, for a total of 12 events.
The University Hawks and head coach Nicolle Davis have experienced a lot of growth this year and will send four swimmers from the girls’ team. Becca Chmiel, Haley Kramer, Maddie McCoy, and Isabella Ratnour will compete as a relay team, with Alexandra Kokosko serving as the alternate.
Davis said the work her team has put in paying off is wonderful to see.
“It means the world just to have these kids qualify,” she said. “Becca has gone to states all four years and to see her make it in all of her events was wonderful. Maddie was an auto-qualifier at regionals also. They’ve all worked so hard after not making individual states last season and have dropped a good amount of time.”
Davis said the message stays the same despite it being the state meet.
“Just leave it all in the pool,” Davis said. “I don’t want them finishing their races and thinking they could’ve done better or gone faster. I want them to be proud of what they’ve accomplished and worked for. We want to work together, make finals, and leave it all out there.”
The Hawks will not have any swimmers from the boys’ team.
Across town for MHS, both boys and girls members of the team will compete. A season ago, three boys made finals and finished with two third-place results.
The girls’ side had a busy meet last season, as they competed in 10 of the total 11 races held for finals at the state meet in 2022. Senior Caroline Riggs and junior Delaney Householder were both all-tournament selections from last year and will both return in individual and relay races for MHS.
Riggs won two individual titles last year as a junior to go along with the two won by MHS in relays and will look to compete again for a team title.
“Our team is feeling confident going into the meet,” MHS coach Eric Householder said. “The girls will face some stiff competition but look forward to it, and the boys will look to swim fast and earn crucial points. We know Caroline is favored in her two events and she will rise to the occasion for us, so we are hopeful that some of our others can improve on their seeding position and score some points for us.”
Riggs will race in the 200 freestyle event and the 100 breaststroke event.
“I am hopeful that the others in the 200 freestyle can move up,” Householder said. “We also had three girls qualify for the 500 free event and should get some points there too. Relays will be big point events for us as well.”
Having raced in many state finals before, Householder knows his swimmers will stay focused, but with the new format in place this year, he is interested in the response of his team.
“We have a great group, many of whom have ‘been there before’ so to speak,” he said. “We have some who also have never competed at states, so we need to make sure they are focused and confident, and hopefully they respond well to the pressure.”
Races are scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m. on Thursday for the preliminaries, with finals being held at 5:45 p.m. that evening. Day two will also begin at 9:45 a.m on Friday but will hold finals an hour earlier than day one, at 4:45 p.m.
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