Columbia – It took the Fort Mill High School girls swim program many, many, many times to get it right, but it has finally figured out how to win state championships.
After finishing as state runner-up nine times in program history, the Yellow Jackets broke through last season, claiming the AAAAA state crown. They doubled up this year, repeating as state champion on October 14 at the University of South Carolina Natatorium.
FMHS won with 368.50 points, handily beating Chapin, which finished with 282. J.L. Mann was third with 268, while Nation Ford and Wando tied for fourth with 237.
“It was very fulfilling for me as a coach,” said head coach Cynthia VanBuskirk . “Coming in second nine times, five times with me, it’s great for us to win it two times in a row.”
And for good measure, the Fort Mill boys brought home their first state championship since 2012. The Yellow Jackets won with 349.50 points followed by Wando with 298. J.L. Mann was third with 265.50, Spring Valley was fourth with 199 and Ashley Ridge was fifth with 196.50.
“I'm just so bursting with pride and joy,” VanBuskirk said. “This is the highlight of my coaching career. I feel very blessed, very fortunate.”
VanBuskirk didn’t think it was a given the FMHS girls would repeat as state champion because of some of the swimmers who graduated.
“For us to graduate the talent we did and come around with new talent is tremendous. “For us to repeat it was very special for us. We all just kind of stood in awe.”
Senior captain Olivia Corbi was the leading scorer for Fort Mill. She finished second in both the 200-yard freestyle and the 500 freestyle. She also swam legs on the winning 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay teams.
Freshman Lila Hadley swam legs on the winning relay teams as did junior Ava Corbi. Senior Mia Pogorzelski swam a leg on th3 400 free relay team, while junior Josie Chandler swam the other leg on the 200 free relay team.
Hadley scored 39 points, finishing second in the 100 breaststroke and fifth in the 200 individual medley. Ava Corbi finished seventh in both the 50 free and the 100 free to close with 32 points. Pogorzelski had 32 points as well as she finished sixth in the 200 free and eighth in the 100 free. Chandler had seven points as she was seventh in the 100 butterfly.
Fort Mill had 20 girls qualify for the state meet as it had at least one qualifier in each event. VanBuskirk said she simply challenged her team to go for it.
“I told them we’ve got to bring it, we’ve got to swim it,” she said. “We were solid from beginning to end. Coming into those last three events, knew we were more than likely going to win it. There was just a lot of excitement, the feeling of knowing we were going to win it back-to-back.
“I knew the talent we had remaining, how hard they worked the past year. We knew we had some young talent coming on bord that could provide us with the depth needed to be a top contender and be able to repeat.”
In the boys meet, Fort Mill put itself in a hole in the very first event, the 200 free relay. The Yellow Jackets were disqualified because one of the swimmers left early. That meant they scored no points at all, allowing their competitors to jump out to a big lead.
VanBuskirk said she had to reassure her squad that all was not lost with the early mistake.
“We had to come back together and have a pep talk,” she said, “I told them, ‘Believe it or not, you still have a shot.’ After the first break we were only 29 points behind the leader, and at the second break we were up 19 points. We were like Phoenix rising from the ashes. What a mental fortitude we showed.”
Senior Jack Dollyhigh led the Jackets with 39 individual points. He finished second in the 50 free and fifth in the 100 free while swimming a leg on the winning 400 free relay, Sophomore Dominic Impens swam a leg on the 400 free relay as well as finishing fourth in the 200 IM and fourth in the 100 breast.
Sophomore Turner Wiand had 36 points, finishing fourth in the 100 backstroke and sixth in the 100 free. He also swam a leg on the 400 free relay team. Senior Owen Fey, also a team captain, had 31 points with a seventh-place finish in the 100 free and an eighth-place finish in the 200 free. He was the fourth swimmer on the 400 free relay and a leg on the fourth-place 200 free relay team.
Junior Adrian Paredes also had 31 points, finishing seventh in the 200 IM and eighth in the 100 breast. He also swam a leg on the 200 free relay.
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