Joan Tsao/Courtesy photo

Gracin Palmer, far left, and Lillie Turlington, fourth from left, compete during last Tuesday’s swim meet.

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Joan Tsao/Courtesy photo

From left, local swimmers Lexi Valenti, Grace Reagan, Claire Fox,Elizabeth Tsao, Katherine Gutierrez, Kylie Cashwell and Ryan Taylor.

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The Clinton High School Women’s Swim Team showed its depth and dominance at the Goldsboro Family YMCA Natatorium, beating all 12 teams at the regional swim meet on Tuesday Nov. 29. The majority of the teams were from larger 3A schools.

Midway High School women finished 5th overall. Sampson Early College High School finished 11th, only 2 points behind South Johnston High School. This is impressive, coach Ken Yang noted, because SECHS has only one swimmer, Kylie Cashwell. Cashwell, by herself, almost beat an entire team from South Johnston High School.

Similar to last year, Taylor Brown (MHS captain) and Clinton’s four returning sophomores (Maggie Wells, Lillie Turlington, co-captain Darby Taylor, and Stephanie Gore) consistently dominated their respective events. CHS also received fast supporting times by sophomore Gracin Palmer and freshman Elizabeth Tsao who are starting to exhibit their own domineering abilities as well. Junior Lexi Valenti had a dramatic time drop in her 100 breaststroke and now is on the cusp of qualifying for the playoffs in February. The CHS women’s relays have also qualified for states in all three relay events.

On the Men’s side CHS finished 4th overall and MHS finished 7th against mostly 3A schools (CHS is a 2A school and MHS is 1A school). MHS is being lead by last season’s Daniel Core , the current team captain who continues to shine in the 100 yard breaststroke. Rookie sensation Chase Starling is now swimming faster than many established year round club swimmers after only three weeks in the water.

The CHS men continue to be driven by the stars from the junior class of Ryan Taylor, co-captain Enrique Elizondo, Weston Locklear, Colin Faulkner, and co-captain Casey Yang. This year their supporting underclassmen are turning into a major force in 2A swimming as sophomores Alex Purcell and Freddy Bath become more technically stronger swimmers. Similar to the women, the CHS men’s relays have all qualified for state championships.

Top 10 results from local swim teams

Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay

(50 yards or 2 lengths of each stroke)

1st Clinton High School with a time of 2:12.76 (time format in minutes and seconds mm:ss.ss)

Relay teams are listed in order, on this team the order was: 1) Wells, Maggie 50 backstroke, 2) Taylor, Darby 50 breaststroke, 3) Turlington, Lillie butterfly, 4) Palmer, Gracin 50 freestyle.

3rd Midway High School with a time of 2:23.80

1) Brinkley, Savannah 2) Core, Mamie 14 3) Brown, Taylor 4) Pondo, Brittany.

9th Clinton High School 2:38.65

1) Gore, Stephanie 2) Valenti, Alexis 3) Tsao, Elizabeth 4) Pope, Samantha.

Boys 200 Yard Medley Relay

4th Clinton High School 2:02.89

1) Yang, Casey 2) Locklear, Weston 3) Taylor, Ryan 4) Bath, Frederick

8th Clinton High School 2:27.73

1) Williams, Austin 2) Hall, Lane 3) Elizondo, Henry 4) Faulkner, Colin

Girls 200 Yard Freestyle

2nd Taylor, Darby Clinton High School-2:25.89

4th Tsao, Elizabeth Clinton High School-NC 2:47.80

Girls 200 Yard Individual Medley

(50 yards of each stroke in the following order –

butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle)

1st Turlington, Lillie Clinton High School-NC 2:34.53

2nd Palmer, Gracin Clinton High School-NC 3:00.09

Boys 200 Yard IM

2nd Taylor, Ryan Clinton High School-NC 2:30.63

6th Locklear, Weston Clinton High School-NC 2:59.17

Girls 50 Yard Freestyle

(out of 72 swimmers)

2nd Wells, Maggie Clinton High School-NC 28.10

3rd Cashwell, Kylie Sampson Early College-NC 31.11

7th Pondo, Brittany Midway High School-NC 32.01

Boys 50 Yard Freestyle

(of 53 swimmers)

4th Core, Daniel Midway High School-NC 25.56

5th Bath, Frederick Clinton High School-NC 26.56

10th Faulkner, Colin Clinton High School-NC 28.22

Girls 100 Yard Butterfly

1st Brown, Taylor Midway High School-NC 1:08.50

3rd Gore, Stephanie Clinton High School-NC 1:27.76

8th Core, Mamie Midway High School-NC 1:41.01

Boys 100 Yard Butterfly

4th Yang, Casey Clinton High School-NC 1:11.21

8th Elizondo, Henry Clinton High School-NC 1:20.75

Girls 100 Yard Freestyle (out of 52 swimmers)

1st Turlington, Lillie Clinton High School-NC 1:01.38

3rd Palmer, Gracin Clinton High School-NC 1:08.68

4th Cashwell, Kylie Sampson Early College-NC 1:08.71

5th Tsao, Elizabeth Clinton High School-NC 1:11.28

9th Pondo, Brittany Midway High School-NC 1:15.57

20th McLamb, Marcy Hobbton High School-NC 1:22.41

Event 12 Boys 100

Yard Freestyle

(of 49 swimmers)

8th Starling, Chase Midway High School-NC 1:05.84

10th Purcell, Alex 15 Clinton High School-NC 1:06.72

Girls 200 Yard

Freestyle Relay

(50 yards freestyle each swimmer)

4th Midway High School-NC 2:09.36

1) Pondo, Brittany 2) Brown, Taylor 3) Core, Mamie 4) Brinkley, Savannah

6th Clinton High School-NC 2:13.97

1) Palmer, Gracin 2) Gore, Stephanie 3) Pope, Samantha (co-captain) 4) Reagan, Grace

Boys 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

6th Clinton High School- 1:55.95

1) Purcell, Alex 2) Faulkner, Colin 3) Elizondo, Henry 4) Tyndall, William

7th Midway High School-NC 1:57.13

1) Thornton, Zack 2) Jones, Justin 3) Starling, Chase 4) Core, Daniel

9th Clinton High School-NC 2:00.96

1) Locklear, Weston 2) Hall, Lane 3) Masterson, Brennan 4) Johnson, Collin

Girls 100 Yard Backstroke

1st Brown, Taylor Midway High School-NC 1:08.55

2nd Wells, Maggie Clinton High School-NC 1:16.47

Boys 100 Yard Backstroke

3rd Taylor, Ryan Clinton High School-NC 1:07.86

6th Bath, Frederick Clinton High School-NC 1:22.36

Girls 100 Yard Breaststroke

3rd Taylor, Darby Clinton High School-NC 1:21.79

4th Core, Mamie Midway High School-NC 1:28.64

7th Valenti, Alexis Clinton High School-NC 1:36.81

Boys 100 Yard Breaststroke

2nd Core, Daniel Midway High School-NC 1:11.82

6th Yang, Casey Clinton High School-NC 1:20.12

9th Locklear, Weston Clinton High School-NC 1:27.46

Girls 400 Yard Freestyle Relay

2nd Clinton High School-NC 4:24.65

1) Tsao, Elizabeth 2) Taylor, Darby 3) Wells, Maggie 4) Turlington, Lillie

Boys 400 Yard Freestyle Relay

2nd Clinton High School-NC 4:06.14

1) Taylor, Ryan 2) Yang, Casey 3) Bath, Frederick 4) Purcell, Alex

4th Midway High School-NC 4:51.49

1) Core, Daniel 2) Starling, Chase 3) Jones, Justin 4) Thornton, Zack

7th Clinton High School- 5:12.82

1) Austin Williams 2) Johnson, Collin 3) Masterson, Brennan 16 4) Tubman, Nathan

TEAM Scores - Women

1. Clinton High School 109

2. Charles B. Aycock High School 91

3. White Oak High School 66

4. Triton Hawks 56

5. Cleveland High School 53

6. Midway High School 49

7. Goldsboro High School 23

7. Rosewood High School 23

9. Eastern Wayne High School 21

10. South Johnston High School 16

11. Sampson Early College 11 (of note SECHS has only one swimmer – Kylie Cashwell)

12. Hobbton High School (of note HHS has only one swimmer – Marcy McLamb)

TEAM Scores - Men

1. Triton Hawks 115

2. Charles B. Aycock High School 100

3. Goldsboro High School 86

4. Clinton High School 64

5. White Oak High School 44

6. Southern Wayne High School 43

7. Midway High School 29

8. Eastern Wayne High School 26

9. South Johnston High School 12

10. Cleveland High School 11

11. Rosewood High School 8