Scottsboro sweeps season-opening meet

After a month of excellent practices under Coach Frances Coleman, the Scottsboro Wildcat swim teams traveled to Cullman Tuesday night to take on Hartselle, Cullman and Westminster Christian. 

They each came home with a perfect start to the 2013 high school swimming season.

Both the SHS boys and girls squads came away with sweeps, keeping the program’s record unblemished in the dual meet format.  The SHS boys bested a talented Westminster squad 48-29 and lapped Cullman 61-16. (Hartselle did not have a boys team).  The Wildcat girls edged Westminster Christian 42-35 and eased past both Cullman 51-26 and Hartselle 58-18.

This year’s Wildcat squad — at combined 32 boys and girls is the largest in team program history — features both top-tier talent and excellent depth. 

Scottsboro swept the medley relays to open the meet.  In the 100-yard Freestyle, Katharyn Sanders and Kate Coleman placed third and fourth respectively while Zach Reichle won on the boys’ side with a team record time of 49.66 seconds.

In the 100-yard Individual Medley, the top Scottsboro finishers were Hannah Altonji (second) and Jacob Flores (fourth).

Kyla Reichle and Kate Coleman finished third and fourth respectively in the girls 50 Freestyle. Zach Reichle and Mark Richard took first and third for the boys in the same event. Kate Coleman then came up with an impressive win in the girls 50 Fly, a feat matched by Mark Richard in the boys’ event.

The 200 Free has been a historically weak event for the Wildcats, but on this night Jessica Duncan took second place and then Kyle Vosen took first with a new team record time of 1:55.36, edging out teammate Alex Herbst for the win.

In the 50 Backstroke, Hannah Altonji placed second while Zach Reichle earned his third victory of the evening. The closest race of the meet saw Kyle Vosen nipped at the wire in the 50 Breast by last year’s league champion by a mere 0.04. The meet closed with a runner-up finish for the girls in the 200 Free Relay and a come-from-behind win for the boys.

Scottsboro came away with state qualifying times for four swimmers in a total of seven events. Three relay teams also made the cut.

Virtually every Wildcat swimmer posted at least one personal best time.  Excellent efforts were turned in by Brooklyn Chapman, Maddy Childress, Alexis Dawson, Mary Catherine Gossett, Alyssa Hunter, Emily McCormack, Bailey McLaughlin, Claire Megehee, Charli O’Brien, Shae Reuter, Anna Richard, Debbie Sanders, Cheyenne Vincent, Stephanie Sanders, Richard Campbell, Jonathan Kurz, Jacob Megehee, Skylar Overby, Tony Pereira, Will Rogers, Tristan Rollins and Holden Wynn.

The SHS swimmers’ next action will come at a double-dual meet against Madison County and Westminster Christian on Sept. 26 at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville.