The Delaware boys and girls high school state championships took place February 16-March 1st, with teams extending winning streaks on both sides.
The Salesianum boys won their 9th-straight title, holding off a tough challenge from Charter School Wilmington. Meanwhile, Charter extended its win streak on the girls side, taking its 7th state championship in a row.
Only one state record fell between the two meets, and that was to Tatnall sophomore David Crossland. He went 50.82 to win the 100 back and just sneak under the state record set in 2010 by one of Delaware’s best-ever high school swimmers, Tanner Kurz.
Boys Meet
The boys meet was a constant showdown between 8-time defending champs from Salesianum and a fast young crew from Charter School of Wilmington.
Charter wound up at the top of the podium most often, sweeping the relays and taking two individual races, but Salesianum was able to quietly churn out enough points to nip their rivals by 9 in the final standings.
Salesianum was led by senior sprinter Tyler Dougherty, who won the team’s first state title of the weekend by going 21.20 in the 50 free. Though that didn’t quite match his lifetime-best 21.06 from prelims, it was enough to top Dover’s Dillon Marier, who went 21.41 for second.
Dougherty narrowly missed a second state title in the 100 free. After putting up a 46.44 in prelims for the top seed, he faded just a tick to 46.66 at finals, and Charter’s Henry Rogatz swept past him for the state championship in 46.51.
Those two met two more times, swimming legs on their schools’ 200 and 400 free relays. Both anchored the 200 free relay. Dougherty put up the field’s fastest split in 21.09, but it wasn’t enough to catch Charter, which got a 21.10 anchor leg from Rogatz. Charter would win the race 1:27.91 to 1:28.14 with the team of Arthur Wang, Adam Dias, Jacob Faull and Rogatz.
In the 400 free relay, Rogatz put up the faster split in what was another Charter win. Rogatz went 46.49 on the end of a 3:12.22 Charter relay that also included Faull, Dias and Connor Sweeney. Swimming third, Dougherty split 47.44, second-fastest in the field, and the Salesianum team went 3:12.86.
Each school had one more individual winner. Charter got a 200 IM win from Arthur Wang. The junior pulled out a tight race, going 1:53.17 to nip Conrad Schools of Science sophomore Brett Saunders by a tenth. Meanwhile, Salesianum won its own tight race in the 500 free. Junior Robbie Dickson went 4:37.76 to top Mark Wellborn from Delaware Military Academy by a tenth as well.
The individual star of the meet was Tatnall sophomore David Crossland. He won two individual events on the weekend and set the only state record in either the boys or girls meets. First, Crossland went 50.13 to win the 100 fly, which turned out to be a relatively close battle at the front between him and Archmere senior Ben Creekmore. Crossland came back to blow away the 100 back field, going 50.28 to get .01 under the old state record set in 2010 by now-Indiana Hoosier Tanner Kurz.
Creekmore won an event of his own. He went 1:41.04 in the 200 free to easily top a field that included Charter’s Rogatz and Salesianum’s Dickson.
Charter won the 200 medley relay to open the meet, kicking off what was an undefeated weekend for them in relay events. Charles Teague, Wang, Sweeney and Tyler Zlupko went 1:38.41 to beat out Delaware Military Academy.
Other state champs were McKean senior Kerry Lucas in diving and Delaware Military Academy junior Kyle Weston in the 100 breast.
Girls Meet
On the girls side, Charter School of Wilmington emerged with its 7th-straight state championship, rolling over the field by 150 points.
Charter got 4 wins from junior Lily Dubroff, who dominated the sprint freestyles all around. Dubroff won the 50 free in 23.35, a ways off her 2012 state record, but still almost a half-second up on the entire field. She came back to win the 100 free with a 50.44, another dominating win. With individuals out of the way, Dubroff put her focus onto relays, leading off both freestyle teams for Charter and picking up two more wins.
She led off the 200 free relay in 23.43 to give her squad a huge lead. Joining her on the team were Caitlyn Blake, Summer Sheats and Julia Snavely, and the foursome went 1:39.99 to win by over two seconds. Dubroff finished her night by leading off the 400 free relay in 50.82. Lexi Santer, Blake and Tessa Slocomb closed out the 3:34.55 relay, which demolished the field by over 6 seconds.
St. Marks senior Margaret Slocomb was just behind Dubroff, claiming three wins on the weekend. Slocomb won the 200 IM and 100 breast for St. Marks. She was a lifetime-best 2:05.49 in the IM, trailing at the halfway point but making up huge ground on breaststroke. It wasn’t surprising, then when she paced the 100 breast field, going 1:05.97, another PR. Second in that race was Archmere freshman Sally Stockett, who actually led at the 50 and pushed Slocomb hard, finishing in 1:06.25.
Slocomb also swam breaststroke on the 200 medley relay, which St. Marks won with flying colors. She joined Meghan Jones, Courtney Clarke and Chloe Hunter on the 1:50.52 relay, which beat out Stockett’s Archmere team by a half-second.
Conrad Schools of Science had the final double-individual winner of the weekend. Sophomore Madison Northshield took home two state titles in two touchouts, showing a great ability to get her hand on the wall first. Northshield went 1:52.57 to win the 200 free by a tenth over Archmere’s Ellie Jogani. That was in a race where both girls were coming off of legs on the medley relay just one event earlier.
Northshield came back in the 500 free to go 5:02.31. That was just a bit ahead of Ursuline’s Erin Turulski, who led through the middle of the race but fell to second in 5:02.89.
Other state champions were Newark freshman Alexis Bedford in diving, Appoquinimink’s Josephine Marsh in the 100 fly and Alexis I. duPont’s Alicia Diaz in the 100 back.