MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown High swim teams, two of the more dominant programs in the state, split their final regular season meet of the year with Wheeling Park on Thursday to set up what will be an interesting Region I meet on Feb. 8.
The boys’ team came out on top, edging the Patriots 80-78. University came in third with 4 points. The girls fell to Wheeling Park 73-58.50 while UHS rounded out the points with 35.50.
“[The teams] were swimming people in events we normally wouldn’t to get ready for regionals,” MHS assistant coach J.C. Pettit said. “We didn’t have our lineup where it’s going to be for the regional or state meet.”
The Morgantown girls’ started out the meet with a relay win, as the A team captured the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:00.24. Wheeling Park’s A team was close behind, clocking 2:02.41, while UHS’s A team claimed the third spot with a time of 2:13.27. From there, Wheeling Park effectively dominated the pool, winning six of the remaining nine events.
Lacie Langmyer (200 free, 500 free) and Abby Turner (50 free, 100 free) led the Patriots with two wins each, edging key MHS swimmers Katelyn Blosser and Caroline Riggs in two separate events while Jenna Bopp picked up a big win in the 100 breaststroke over UHS’s Mia Rice. Bopp took first place by eight seconds, clocking 1:06.38.
Rice, however, claimed UHS’s only top placement, defeating Blosser by 3 seconds in the 100 fly with a time of 1:06.11. Riggs picked up one win for MHS in the 200 IM, hitting the wall in 2:13.25. Senior McKenna Moore also had an individual win for Morgantown, claiming the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:02.61, eight seconds ahead of second-place finisher UHS’s Victoria Maumbe.
Morgantown’s girls’ team closed out the meet with another relay win in the 400 free relay (3:56.25).
On the boys’ side, Morgantown had three first-place finishes and multiple second- and third-place times in the win. Preston Householder picked up the first top finish for the Mohigans in the 200 free, touching the wall in 2:02.77 while teammate Lake Embrey was behind him in second (2:07.07). After Parks’ Devanand Kuttan won the 200 IM, the Mohigans dominated the 50 free by putting a racer in the top four spots — Carson Gresak, Jeffrey Poach, Caleb Seol and George Chirila.
The Patriots won the next five individual events (100 fly, 100 free, 500 free, 100 back and 100 breast), but split the final two relays with MHS. Morgantown’s A team claimed the 200 free relay with a time of 1:43.34, just ahead of Park at 1:45.05, and to end the tri, the Patriots won the 400 free by 10 seconds in 4:06.10.
Morgantown and University will see Wheeling Park once more as the three teams converge on the Region I meet, and although the Patriots pose a problem for those with state-qualifying aspirations, for Pettit his team can’t overlook Parkersburg High either.
“Parkersburg will be strong with the two of us [Morgantown and Wheeling Park],” he said. “Our teams have been hitting quite a bit of yardage lately, and coming back from the interruption that the holidays are, they’re trying to maintain the background they had before those holidays.
“Over the next 10 days, we’ll start reducing their yardage, but hitting the intensity of the workout to develop more speed for the vast majority of the team.
The big names are there for Morgantown — Moore, Riggs, Gresak, Embrey and Householder — but there are a few others that can make a splash at regionals who have flown under the media radar this year: Poach and Blosser.
“Jeffrey is a young man that has developed exceptionally well in the spring freestyles,” Pettit said. “On the women’s side, Kate Blosser, a sophomore, has been regularly dropping times in all of her events to the point where we now have to pick and choose which events she’ll likely best qualify for states in. She’s really becoming a well-rounded competitor.”
Looking ahead to qualifications, the top three from each event at regionals will take part in the state meet — as well as the top 12 fastest times in each event from around the state. Pettit noted that the combination helps make sure it doesn’t exclude anyone.
“We hope that when the state meet is in town on Feb. 20 and 21 that the local community comes out to support it. It will be an amazing event especially when the final events on [the final day],” Pettit said.
