MORGANTOWN – The Buckhannon-Upshur swim Bucs and Lady Bucs opened their season Wednesday at Morgantown’s Mylan Park Aquatic Center.

The Lady Bucs place third out of five teams with 34 points.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Lillian Fetty, Chloe Blonn, Rylee Yardley, and Mallory Hughes were already in midseason form as they took first place with a time of 2:02.08. It was the only win for the Lady Bucs in the nine events that they competed in.

Sammie Shay picked up the lone runner-up honor for the Lady Bucs as she placed second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:39.93.

Hughes and Yardley picked up individual thirds as Hughes took third in the 50-yard freestyle (28.10) and Yardley placed third in the 200-yard freestyle (2:33.28). The foursome of Yardley, Hughes, Shay, and Fetty took third place in the 200-yard medley relay (2:16.99).

Morgantown won the girls team title with 73 points while University was ahead of the Lady Bucs in second place with 38.

For the Bucs, first-year head coach Kelly Terhune had just three swimmers compete – all three of her freshmen, Johnny Chen, Riley Bender, and Aidan Squires.

The trio competed in five events with Chen having the top finish, placing fifth in the 100-yard backstroke (2:02.68).

Morgantown won the team title for the boys with 97 points while University was second with 59 while North Marion was third with six and the Bucs were fourth with one point.

“We have some work to do, but for a beginning of the season meet I thought we had a good showing, especially considering the youth of the team,” remarked Terhune. “Karson, Elizabeth, Mallory, and Riley all swam their first high school meet and Johnny and Aidan swam in their first meet ever. I thought our returners (Lillian, Rylee, and Sammie) all had good times for the first time out. Again, I thought it was a  very good first meet across the board. There are some things to fix but that is expected.”

Both teams will be back in action Nov. 29 in a road dual with Elkins.