RAEFORD —The Scotland CoEd varsity swimming team competed in a conference meet on Wednesday night that was moved to Hoke County because of the pool’s heater at St. Andrews being broken. The women’s team finished in fifth place out of six teams with 85 points scored while the men finished in sixth with 22 points.
The women’s team standings in order were Pinecrest (284 points scored), Union Pines (279 points scored), Hoke County (96 points), Richmond (93 points scored), Scotland and Southern Lee (15 points scored). On the men’s side, the standings in order were Union Pines (297 points scored), Pinecrest (275 points scored), Richmond (103 points scored), Southern Lee (99 points scored), Hoke County (30 points scored) and Scotland.
The Scots had several personal best swims on Wednesday. The 50-yard freestyle saw Scotland with five swimmers post personal best times. Those swimmers were Bailey Brink (dropped from 34.16 seconds to 33.31 to finish in ninth), Addi Johnson (dropped from 38.22 seconds to 37.01), Avery Stutts (dropped from 42.47 seconds to 40.11), Ramsey Hale (dropped from 48.71 seconds to 47.32) and Dawson Blue (dropped from 42.87 seconds to 40.08).
Caycee Bert also dropped nearly 14 seconds (1:35.27 to 1:21.66) from her seed time in the 100-yard backstroke to finish in fifth of that event. Bert would also add a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:30.55.
Best times for Scotland didn’t stop there as they had two swimmers with personal bests in the 100-yard breastroke: Taylor Johnson and Elisha Dockery. Johnson and Dockery both finished in third of that event with Johnson dropping from 1:17.73 to 1:17.35 while Dockery improved his time by nearly four seconds (1:21.04 to 1:17.40). Johnson also won the women’s 200-yard IM with a time of 2:24.97 while Dockery added a fifth-place finish in the same event with a time of 2:53.93.
Head Coach Aliechia Post was especially pleased with the women’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Blue, Grecia Meza, Stutts and Addi Johnson that dropped over 12 seconds (2:50.68 to 2:38.23) from their performance last week. With some swimmers out due to being sick, the Scots weren’t able to compete in all of their usual relays, but Post was still happy with the way some swimmers stepped into a spot they weren’t used to being in.
“I am very pleased with my first-year swimmers’ performance at this meet, especially the four girls who swam the 200 free relay,” Post said. “We weren’t able to swim all our relays this evening due to illness, so we didn’t score as many points as we usually do but the swimmers who were put in a really good effort.”
Scotland will have another meet next Wednesday. The meet will also be held at Hoke County.
Wrestling teams drop conference meet
The Scots headed to Richmond on Wednesday night to battle conference rivals Hoke County and Richmond. The boys team fell to Hoke County 61-13 and to the Raiders in a narrow 42-21 battle. The girls team meanwhile fell to Hoke County by a score of 59-9.
The boys team picked up three match wins against Hoke County: one by decision, one by fall and one by major decision. Josh Smith (113) defeated Naje Ross 12-3 for the victory by major decision while Anthony Pate (157) took down Isaiah Johnson 13-12 for a win by decision. Amari Singletary (215) beat McKinley Alapati in 3:49 for the victory by fall.
As for their meeting with the Raiders, the boys picked up seven different victories: three by fall, three by forfeit and one via technical fall. The technical fall win was obtained by Zayrn McNeill (126) taking down Brian Ingram for a 17-2 win. The three victories via fall came from Donerio Graham (132) against Adan Kiing, Pate defeating Jake Gardener and Anakin House (165) over Antoine McDonald. Smith, Blaze Marshall (138) and Tripp Sikes (106) got credit for the wins by forfeit.
On the girl’s side, they won two matches against Hoke County with one by decision and one via fall. Carmin Moore (145) defeated Zada English 2-0 for the decision win while Latia Williams (152) beat Jazzymn Kessey in 2:37 for the victory by fall.
The women are set to head to the 2025 N.C. Girls Dual Invite on Saturday. The boys are next set to compete next Thursday in the Montgomery Central Tri.