Women’s Meet
Georgia commit Megan Kingsley completed her high school career on Saturday at the South Carolina High School League’s 4A (big school) state championship meet with a bang, winning both of her individual events. She led Wando High School to a 4th-place finish, but it was the Riverside women who ran away with the state title. They scored 478 points, almost 200 points more than they did last year to place 4th, and blew away runners-up JL Mann. The top 10 teams:
1. Riverside 478
2. JL Mann 352
3. Fort Mill 329
4. Wando 3311
5. North Augusta 222
6. South Aiken 182
7. Mauldin 160
8. Clover 145
9. Aiken 144
10. Dorman 140
JL Mann jumped out to an early lead, with a win in the 200 medley relay in 1:45.57. The team of Ali Galyer, Savanna Faulconer, Amanda McNulty, and Lillie Anderson combined for the win; that included a 24.88 split from the Ohio State commit McNulty.
Fort Mill took 2nd in that race in 1:47.16, Wando was 3rd (Kingsley split 25.0), and Riverside was 4th. Those top four teams were all under the old state record (originally, and still, held by JL Mann), which Kelsey Williams shows how the level of the country’s shortest high school swim season has risen this year.
Galyer gave Mann their 2nd-straight win, touching in 1:50.35 in the 200 yard freestyle. For the sophomore, that just missed her lifetime best in the event, and put her three seconds ahead of runner-up Madison Coughlen from Fort Mill.
Kingsley then took her third-straight state title in the 200 IM, going 2:01.10. That just missed her own State Record of 2:00.99 from last year, but held off Mann from pulling too far out in front as their Savanna Faulconer was 2nd in 2:03.91.
Riverside continued to hang around, though, with two swimmers in the top 5: Jessi Snover in 2:04.29 and Jessica Horomanski in 2:09.90. (Another sign of how much faster this meet is getting: prior to Kingsley breaking it last year, the top four in this race would’ve all been under the state record.
Clover junior Morgan Rulevich won the girls’ 50 free in 23.95, which improved upon her lifetime best, set in a runner-up performance at last year’s meet, by half-a-second. That sub-24 will start to catch the eye of college recruiters as they begin parsing through the data of the class of 2015 in the next few months.
Kelsey Williams from North Augusta took 2nd in 24.17, just out-touching Ashleigh Bennett’s 24.18.
Again, though, Riverside without winning made up ground on the field with two swimmers in the A-final. That includes 5th-place finisher Ali Snover, sister of Jessi, as the Snover sisters really had a huge impact in Riverside’s runaway victory.
In the next event, it was Jessi again who scored big points for Riverside, taking 3rd in 55.55. Her teammate Maegan Rudolph was 5th in 57.71.
The winner of that race, though, was Kingsley: again defending this state title with a 54.67. McNulty, who was faster than Kingsley on the medley relay, settled for 2nd here in 55.35: three seconds better than she was in last year’s meet. This race had the same top three finish as it did a season ago.
Williams completed a sweep of the 100 free, with a 52.63; she and runner-up Michelle Case from Fort Mill were in a dead-heat throughout this race, but at the final touch it was Williams who took the win by a mere .03 seconds.
Another race, and two more high finishers for Riverside: Rudolph, on back-to-back races, was 3rd in 53.18, and Ali Snover was 4th in 53.33.
North Augusta’s Nicole Fuller took top honors in the 500 free, with a 5:01.16, followed by a Fort Mill 1:38.06 to win the 200 free relay.
Riverside managed to get 2nd in that relay in 1:39.50 without using Rudolph or either of the Snover sisters: a huge moral victory for them that would pay off later in the meet.
Galyer won the 100 back in 55.07, beating defending state champion Micah Bohon (55.18) and Amanda McNulty (57.17). Galyer and Bohon were both under the old State Record in the race.
Rulevich, who is a classic sprint freestyler/breaststroker, picked up her second win, taking the latter in 1:04.78. That beat JL Mann’s Faulconer, who was 1:04.85.
With the meet out of reach, Riverside was able to unleash their three best swimmers, Jessi Snover (52.49), Ali Snover (52.64), Maegen Rudolph (52.82), and anchor Ariana Schneider (52.16) on the meet-closing 400 free relay and pick up their lonely single event victory en route to the dominating state title margin.
Wando, with a 51.80 anchor from Kingsley, had two very good legs, but just couldn’t put together two opening legs that could keep Riverside close. They took second in 3:31.68.
For Riverside, this was truly a ‘team’ win: they walked away with just one event gold, but ultimately that was more than they needed to triumph for the big score: team hardware.
Men’s Meet
The Riverside men, like their women, dominated the team scoring, and much like their women they did it with only a single individual event victory (though the Riverside men swept the free relays).
1. Riverside 433
2. Spartanburg 252
3. Fort Mill 238
4. Wade Hampton 206
5. JL Mann 187
6. Wando 185
7. Clover 160
8. Dorman 158
9. Spring Valley 152
10. Nation Ford 134
The Spartanburg High School medley, though, started off with a win in the opening men’s 200 IM, with the team of William Oberg, Chandler Brown, Noah Martin, and Eastin Mann combining for a 1:36.71. Riverside was 2nd in 137.81, and Wade Hampton was 3rd in 1:39.68.
Fort Mill took the lion’s share of the individual event win, beginning with junior Jacob Kohlhoff, who was a lifetime best of 1:41.06 to win the 200 free. That broke the 5-year old state record of 1:41.64.
Northwestern High’s Riley League took the men’s 200 IM in 1:52.67, which tipped runner-up Jeremiah Bohon in 1:54.36.
One of the few races at this meet that didn’t get faster from 2012 to 2013 was the men’s 50 free. Fort Mills’ Zach Piedt still had an impressive swim with a 21.14 to win the sprint event. Rock Hill’s Jackson Bagwell was 2nd in 21.36.
William Oberg won the men’s 100 fly in 50.66. That left senior Jacob Rupp for his second-straight runner-up finish, with a 50.88.
Kohloff won another event, the men’s 500 free, to push Fort Collins’ win total to four events through this point of the meet.
Oberg too picked up his second win, posting a 51.13 to win the 100 back over Bagwell.
League won the 100 breast in 57.82, which was half-a-second better than John Slavens‘ Jeremiah Bohon.
Finally, Andrew Delahuny (48.44), led a balanced Riverside relay, with four 48’s, to a win in 3:13.78. Spartanburg was 2nd in 3:16.81.
Full results for the meet are available on meet mobile (search SCHSL).
Our full 3A recap is available here.