BUCKHANNON — The Buckhannon-Upshur High School boys and girls swim teams will head into the Big 10 Conference Championships on Saturday with the current at their backs after winning 10 events in their final home meet of the season.
The B-U squads swept both the 200-yard medley relay and 200 free relay in last Saturday’s home quad against Elkins, Fairmont Senior and Doddridge County. The boys squad of Preston Bennett, Reis Leonard, Carter Zuliani and Owen Caynor won the medley relay with a time of 1:48.19 and the free relay in 1:35.07. For the B-U girls, Rylee Yardley, Alayna Whitehair, Cadence Vincent and Lillian Fetty took first in the medley relay in 2:02.68 and won the free relay in 1:51.81.
Vincent also collected gold medals in the 100-yard fly (57.49) and 50 free, where her time of 23.56 was nearly five seconds faster than the second-place finisher. Whitehair also swam to a pair of individual wins in the 100 free (58.93) and 100 back (1:05.48).
Other top-six finishers for the Lady Bucs included Yardley in the 100 breast (second place, 1:28.70) and 200 free (third place, 2:27.88), Fetty in the 500 free (third place, 6:29.67) and 200 free (fifth place, 2:34.77), Chloe Blonn in the 100 free (fourth place, 1:10.25) and the 50 free (sixth place, 31.55), Sammie Shay in the 100 breast (fourth place, 1:36.12) and Savannah Lashmit in the 100 back (sixth place, 1:37.22).
For the Buccaneer boys, Bennett won the 100-yard breast (1:03.31) and placed second in the 50 free (22.73). Leonard also swam to an individual win in the 100 free (54.37), just beating his teammate, Zuliani (55.67). Zuliani finished third in the 50 free (23.60), while Caynor finished sixth in that event (25.80). Rounding out the individual finishers for B-U were Leonard and Caynor in the 100 breast, where they finished second (1:06.78) and fourth (1:17.07), respectively.
The B-U swim teams will head to Bridgeport on Saturday for the Big 10 Championships and will then prep for the regional meet next week.
See photos from Saturday’s home meet here: https://www.mybuckhannon.com/b-uhs-swimming-photo-gallery-2022-23.
