LANDIS — There were no world-record times, but Monday’s annual Rowan County Swim Meet furnished at least one new entry for the Guinness Book: Highest sustained noise volume for four consecutive hours.
“You’re up there on the blocks,” said North Rowan junior Ryan Starrett, “and you just go, ‘Wow, this is loud!’ And then you’re thinking, ‘Hey, was that the horn or was that someone screaming?’ ”
There’s no question that for Rowan’s boys and girls swim teams yesterday’s event is the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras and Christmas rolled into one. Ten teams pile into a confined space and everyone in the building yelling. No other sport has anything quite like it.
“We swim meets against the Winston-Salem schools and it’s like the place is dead,” said South boys and girls coach Greg Yanz, trying to be heard above the din. “But this is the thing each year all the kids, coaches and parents look forward to. The enthusiasm and the excitement is unbelievable. I didn’t sleep for a week before this one, because this is the meet everyone comes out to see and everyone gets pumped up for. You just can’t lose this one.”
Yanz’s boys didn’t lose, mostly because they’re deeper than Lake Ontario. A strong West team took six first places, including two of the three relays, but the Raiders, who won four events, kept piling up points with fourth, fifths and sixths with their waves of swimmers. South had two or three scorers (the top six place) in every event. The other squads couldn’t keep pace.
“No one in the county’s got numbers (in boys) like South,” sighed Salisbury assistant J.T. Bost.
“You see South come out for warm-ups and they fill up the whole pool,” marveled Starrett, who won the 100 fly and was the only boy to break the South-West stranglehold on first places. “I mean, we (North) have only got five guys.”
But that takes nothing away from South’s victory. Give Yanz credit for building and sustaining the kind of program that draws huge interest from the student body year after year. Maybe that’s why Yanz was named county boys coach of the year for the fourth straight time.
“This is the sweetest win for us yet,” said Yanz. “We knew we were strong, but we knew the others were too. This was definitely the most competitive meet ever.”
“We all swam our best times today,” said South junior Jacob Helms, who won the 200 freestyle. “It was not any one person, it was a team thing. We knew what he had to do and we did it.”
There were some phenomenal races, particularly the 200 free relay where South upset West and the meet-ending 400 relay in which West held off South, setting off a celebration in the Falcon section that nearly lifted the roof off the Y. West won that frenzied finale by less than two seconds.
“The 200 was big,” said Yanz. “We hadn’t touched them in that event all year long.”
The sprint to the wire between Starrett and West youngster Jeff Dockins in the 100 backstroke was phenomenal as well. Dockins, who earned outstanding boys swimmer honors, pulled that one out by less than a second by shaving six seconds off his qualifying time.
“I’m 5-foot-8 in my shoes and Jeff’s about 6-4, so he took five strokes to my two,” laughed Starrett. “He swam a great race, but hopefully I made my mark, too.”
South’s boys piled up 115 points, followed by West (82), East (44), Salisbury (35) and North (22).
In the girls competition. Salisbury, which went unbeaten in the Central Carolina Conference, was overwhelming, winning all eight individual events and two of three relays. South’s girls beat West in the 200 free relay to prevent a Hornet sweep.
Four Hornet girls won two events each. Jenny Oh took the 100 fly and 100 back. Taylor Sexton, the meet’s outstanding swimmer, won the 200 IM and 100 breaststroke. The DeSorbo girls, junior Chelsea and freshman Courtney, swamped the field in the four freestyle races. That quartet also dominated the relays.
Chelsea and Courtney are swimmers No. 4 and No. 5 from a long line of dominating DeSorbos from the county’s first family of swimming. Must be the genes, right?
“No, I can’t really say that,” giggled Courtney. “My parents can’t swim. I guess it’s practice and dedication.”
Actually, Salisbury girls coach Doris Rowe says those two things are the secret for her whole team’s success.
“We’ve got a lot of self-motivated kids,” she said. “And it also helps that they push and motivate each other.”
Rowe’s girls finished eighth in the state last season and she hopes to do even better this year. The scary thing about the Hornets is that they’re so young. None of yesterday’s winners is a senior.
The Hornet totalled 130 points, followed by South (85), West (48), East (27) and North (12). Yanz said his girls swam by far their best match of the year just to keep the powerful Hornets within hailing distance.
All in all, it was a successful day for all concerned, from the double-winners on down to the kids who didn’t place, but were determined to finish that grueling 500 meters, anyway.
The prototypical county swimmer might be West senior Michelle Gardner, who finished second in the 500 freestyle. She’s watched her favorite sport grow enormously since she first signed up as a freshman. Gardner says she puts in five to eight hours of work a week in the pool, even though she knows she’ll be lucky to make the fine print in the newspaper.
“I still love it,” said Gardner. “There’s so much enthusiasm from the kids in this sport and we get so much enthusiasm from our coaches. Every year, there’s more people getting into swimming in the county, and you know, they’re the really good people.”
They’re not only good; they’re loud.
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