The Region 4B Swim Championships, held at SwimRVA on Feb. 14, ended with glory for the Hanover Hawks boys team and runner-up finishes for both the boys and girls squads of the Atlee Raiders. Both teams will be sending off multiple swimmers to the Class 4 State Championships, hosted by the Christiansburg Aquatic Center on Feb. 22.
The Hanover boys team won with a score of 309, just ahead of Atlee’s 293 points and Monacan’s 292. In the girls standings, Atlee finished with 267.5 points, while the Monacan Chiefs dominated to capture the title with 540. Hanover’s girls team placed fourth with 209 points.
The Mechanicsville Mustangs girls team saw a record-breaking performance out of their 200 freestyle group (Kenzie Strohhacker, Olivia Minton, Sydney Minton, and Katie Willard) that broke a 10-year record with a time of 1:41.72. It placed second in the event behind Monacan’s 1:37.30. Willard also placed first in the 100 freestyle (53.11) and second in the 200 freestyle (1:57.34).
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The Mechanicsville girls team placed sixth overall (199 points) while their boys team placed fifth (238 points).
The regional meet opened with the 200-yard medley relay events, which both saw Atlee place second and Hanover third, with the Raiders boys relay group touching the wall at 1:39.99 and the girls at 1:51.61.
Hanover got its first of two gold medal finishes in the third event, when junior Colin Eliason won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:46.49. Just behind him was Atlee’s Michael Sabo, who finished just 0.20 seconds behind his Hanover opponent at 1:46.69.
Hanover’s other first place finish came in the boys 200 freestyle relay, which Eliason led off on with a 22.86-second appearance that set the tone for teammates Carson Sims (23.15), Brody Kyzer (22.51) and Charlie Welsh (21.93) to claim a second victory for the boys team with a final time of 1:30.45.
For Atlee, strong performances across multiple events from swimmers like Brandon Harvey, Jenna Stevens and Chandler Rose helped their teams to runner-up finishes.
Harvey, along with Sabo, Rose and Will Cope, won the 400 freestyle (3:16.54). He then placed first in the 100 freestyle, beating Patrick Henry’s Kaleb Kashinejad by nearly two seconds with a time of 47.77 seconds. To add onto that, Harvey placed second behind Dillman in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.77 seconds.
Rose then won the 100 butterfly event himself, finishing in 52 seconds, while also placing second in the 100 backstroke (53.26) behind Monacan swimmer Cooper Dillman’s 50.19-second finish. Hanover’s Eliason placed third in the backstroke event behind Rose (53.68).
Stevens added another gold medal performance for the Raiders, winning the 100 breaststroke with a 1:09.75 finish, ahead of Patrick Henry’s Kate Balut (1:10.58).
These stacked local teams now get set to compete again in Christiansburg, where they’ll shoot for even bigger results on a larger stage with hopes of getting their team a Class 4 state title.
