The Falcon girls also performed well, finishing fourth in the meet held at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center in Charlotte, as senior Jessica Rothbeind won the 100-yard breaststroke for the fifth straight year. The Cannon School took first place in the girls’ meet.
“The guys have dominated their meets all season,” Falcon coach Owen Herbert said. “The boys and the girls stepped up and put it together, and swam a really good meet.”
The team scores for the top five boys’ squads were The O’Neal School 93, Hickory Grove Christian 89, Arendell Parrott 85, The Cannon School 54 and Cape Fear Academy 30.
Sophomores Greg Doughty and Sargeant Peppers combined to grab a bundle of points early in the meet by finishing first and third in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events.
Doughty’s times of 22.24 in the 50 freestyle and 48.69 in the 100 freestyle broke the meet records set several years ago by former Falcon Hunter Rudd.
The Falcon boys’ 200 freestyle relay team of Doughty, David Kelly, Sam Stewart and Peppers also broke its own meet record with a first-place time of 1:35.66.
That same quartet was also first in the 400 freestyle relay. Its time of 3:35.38 shattered the old meet record by 11 seconds.
David Kelly had the other first for the Falcon boys in the 100 breaststroke (1:05.75). The junior was also second in the 200 individual medley (2:11.46). Other point-getters included Kevin Schrum, seventh in the 500 freestyle (6:21.34), Preston Puleo, seventh in the 100 backstroke (1:15.76), and Alex Zhang, seventh in the 200 individual medley and 10th in the 100 Butterfly.
The Falcon girls won state titles in 1993 and 2000.
Rothbeind’s time in the 100-yard breaststroke event she has dominated for half of this decade (1:09.28), wasn’t quite good enough to surpass her own meet record. She also grabbed second in the 200 individual medley (2:17.62).
Teammate Sage Erskine won the 100 backstroke (1:00.85) and took second in the 200 freestyle (2:01.87).
Also contributing to the Falcon cause were the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams. The 400 unit of Rothbeind, Erskine, Blair Puleo and Whitney Cutler took third (4:13.79) and the 200 quartet of Erskine, Rothbeind, Jessica Williams and Puleo came in fourth (1:55.23).
The top-five team scores for the girls were Cannon 128, St. David’s 82, Westchester Academy 69, O’Neal 54 and Spartanburg Day School 44.
Herbert was pleased with the accomplishments of Falcon seventh-graders like Alex Zhang for the boys and Blair Puleo and Cutler for the girls under the hot lights of state competition .
“I was real proud of all of the kids,” he said. “They are an awesome group of swimmers and individuals as well. I can’t take any credit. This was all them. I was just along for the ride.”
