School records fall at state swim meet
The Cape Henlopen boys' and girls' swim teams dove into the pool as underdogs at the DIAA state meet, but the Vikings showed they could swim with the best in the state.
Jack Weeks finished second in the 100-yard backstroke with a school record time of 53.36. Weeks also set a school record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.30, good enough for fifth in the contest.
Weeks teamed up with Charlie Burton, Nate Griffith and John Dean for the 200 medley relay. The group posted a time of 1:46.69 to earn a seventh-place finish.
Burton broke his own school record in the 100 breaststroke prelims with a time of 1:03.41 and followed it up with a 1:03.87 swim in the finals for finish seventh.
Weeks, Dean, Luke DiGuglielmo and Dan Myers broke a nine-year-old record in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:30.50. They finished 12th in the event.
Other notable finishes include Sussex Tech's Gray Venables with a fifth-place finish in the 50 free and St. Andrew's swimmer Keegan Pando of Lewes, who was a member of the sixth-place 400 free relay team.
Salesianum won the overall boys' title with 356 points. Cape finished eighth 77 points.
On the girls' side, Cape finished seventh with 149 points. Charter School of Wilmington swam away from the competition, amassing 374 points.
Cape's 200 free relay team of Amelia Nigh-Johnson, Sarah Rambo, Sarah Hyde and Molly Weeks earned a runner-up finish with a school-record swim of 1:42.39. The girls then teamed up again to finish third in the 200 medley relay. They set a new school record in the prelims with a time of 1:52.00.
Weeks finished fifth in the 200 free with a swim of 2:02.72. She also set a new school record in the 500 free prelims, but was unable to repeat the effort in the finals.
Nigh-Johnson broke an 11-year-old school record in the 100 butterfly with a swim of 1:01.05. She claimed sixth place in the event. She also earned a seventh-place finish in the 50 free with a time of 25.67.
Rambo earned a sixth-place honor in the 100 backstroke. Hyde set a new school record in the 100 breaststroke.
Other local swimmers to place include Sussex Tech's Briana Hall, who finished fourth in the 50 and 100 free events. Hall teamed up with Hannah Venables, Corrine Stewart and Rachel King to earn eighth in the 200 free relay.
