Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
Radford High School rolled into Saturday’s regional swimming meet at the Christiansburg Aquatics Center with a Three Rivers District title and a lot of confidence.
The boys team used the momentum to pick up an easy 175-80 win over second place James River. Appomattox was third, Giles fourth and Galax fifth.
Radford Coach Heather Rowland felt her team showed up to race and qualify as many swimmers as they possibly could for the state meet.
“The boys did an outstanding job and we had a lot of best times swum on Saturday. All of their races contributed towards the boys’ final score,” she said.
On the girls side of the pool, Radford (79 points) had to settle for second place behind Glenvar who finished with 132 points to the Bobcats’ 79. George Wythe was third and Appomattox fourth.
Radford took second in the final event of the day, the 400 freestyle relay, to lock down the team position.
Rowland also stated she was proud of the girls. “Glenvar has an outstanding girls’ team this year and we can’t wait to race them again at the state meet,” she said.
Radford, who was the host team, won all three boys relay events (200 Medley, 200 Freestyle and 200 Free). The Bobcats also had individual wins from Andrew Rehak (200 Freestyle), Nate Csmato (200 IM and 500 Freestyle), and Nicholas Harvey (100 backstroke).
Radford will take 19 athletes to the 1A/2A State swim meet this week which is scheduled for Thursday in Richmond.