B-U swimmers celebrate Senior Day by winning 10 of 22 events at quad meet

Brian Bergstrom
January 16, 2023

BUCKHANNON — The Buckhannon-Upshur High School swim teams honored their five seniors on Saturday by winning nearly half of the 22 events in a four-team meet hosted at West Virginia Wesleyan College.

Preston Bennett, Owen Caynor, Reis Leonard, Cadence Vincent and Alayna Whitehair were recognized during the Senior Day ceremony. The Buccaneers and Lady Bucs then went on to claim victories in the 200-year medley relays, with Rylee Yardley, Whitehair, Vincent and Sammie Shay winning the girls event (2:07.52) and Bennett, Leonard, Carter Zuliani and Caynor claiming the boys race (1:48.52).

The same group of boys also won the 200-yard free relay (1:37.87), while the girls placed second in that event (1:54.87).

Winfield, Philip Barbour and Robert C. Byrd also competed in Saturday’s meet.

In the individual events, the Buccaneers claimed four gold medals: Bennett won the 200-yard IM (2:07.07) and 100-yard backstroke (54.51) — breaking his own 2022 school record of 55.69 seconds in the latter event.

Carter Zuliani won the 50 free (23.56), while Caynor took third (25.76). Leonard claimed gold in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.51), and in the 100-yard free, Zuliani placed second (55.31) and Leonard third (56.27).

For the B-U girls, Vincent won the 100-yard backstroke (57.34) and 100-yard free (51.37). In the latter event, Chole Blonn placed fifth (1:09.81) and Savannah Lashmit took ninth (1:27.97). Alayna Whitehair claimed B-U’s other individual gold, winning the 100-yard breaststroke (1:13.42), while Shay took fourth in that event (1:36.49).

Whitehair placed second in the 100 fly (1:04.26), while Cate O’Neill and Shay finished third (7:36.79) and fourth (7:38.25) respectively in the 500-yard freestyle. Yardley also took third in the 200 free (2:42.28).

Rounding out the girls team, Blonn finished fourth (32.04) in the 50 free, while Lashmit finished seventh (38.56) in that event.

Both B-U swim teams are scheduled to be back in action on Wednesday when they will host a home quad at the WVWC pool, with the events scheduled to start at 6 p.m.