High school girls swimming: Epley guides South to 4th straight county title

Published 4:23 pm Friday, January 31, 2025

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — South Rowan’s rookie swim coach Matthew Epley was a major part of Carson’s first — and only — county boys championship in 2020.

Coach Mel Eaton guided the Cougars to that surprising title, with Epley teaming with serious aqua-men such as Cooper Sever, Cole Dixon and Jacob Jackson for relay victories.

When he was a Carson junior, Epley had every reason to believe he eventually would be swimming for a college program. That was the dream, but COVID interrupted and disrupted his senior season at Carson.

“A lot of schools were looking at me — D2s, D3s, NAIAs,” Epley said. “But then all of that was gone. Then my backup plan was going to Rowan-Cabarrus Community College for a year and then transferring to a four-year school to swim.”

When doors close, windows sometimes open. Shortly after high school graduation in 2021, Epley was hired to coach the Salisbury Cyclones, a Rowan Aquatic Club youth swimming program. That was life-changing. That was his dream job.

“I love being a swim coach,” Epley said. “It’s what I love to do. There’s nothing as exciting for me as seeing a swimmer I train achieve a personal best or make a regional cut.”

He has done well with the Cyclones for four years, not only as far as meet scoring, but in terms of growing the numbers in the program. He has added more coaching responsibilities with RAC and is the lead coach for “RAC South,” which trains at South Rowan YMCA.

“We were training at the South Y and practicing right after the South Rowan High team last year, so I got to know the coaches and I knew Jarrod Smith was planning on stepping down,” Epley said. “When the South Rowan swim job was posted, I went through the application process.”

He was hired. Now he is a very young high school head coach, but he brings a wealth of knowledge and energy to the sport. He coaches both Raider teams — girls and boys.

The South girls still have solid numbers for a Rowan County program. Their depth keyed a Rowan County Championship, their fourth straight, on Friday, Jan. 24.

“I believe that of the fourth consecutive championships won by the South girls, this was the hardest of the four,” Epley said. “When I took the job, I knew South had graduated a whole lot of seniors. I honestly expected a rebuilding year, a year to put some things in place, so to win another championship means a lot.”

East is the only other Rowan girls team with any numbers right now. Even Salisbury, which had powerful girls swim teams and individual state champs not that long ago, is short on swimmers.

“Swimming in the county is down quite a bit from where it was when I was in high school, but we’re still lucky with the numbers that we have at South,” Epley said. “We knew the competition as far as the county meet would have to come from East. The South Piedmont Conference Championships were three days before the county meet, so we got a good look at exactly what East could throw at us. The conference meet helped me make a lot of lineup decisions for the county meet.”

The three relay events are vital, with lots of points at stake. Epley thought South’s girls might be able to take all three.

South won the 200 medley relay to start the meet at Hurley YMCA with Sadie Siscoe, Brinley Patterson, Ava Blume and Maddison Glenn. That first place by less than two seconds, was key, as East’s individual standouts Addy Sechriest and Gracie Lineberger swim on the Mustangs’ 200 medley relay team.

South’s Gracie Hinson, Kayleigh Draughn, Patterson and Siscoe won the 200 free relay.

Sechriest, Lineberger and their teammates won the 400 free relay, which closed the meet. Blume, Hinson, Draughn and Siscoe swam a strong time for the Raiders, a regional qualifying time, but the Mustangs were still eight seconds quicker.

“East swam a really fast 400,” Epley said.

Sechriest won the 200 free and 500 free, while Lineberger won the 200 IM and 100 butterfly.

Salisbury’s Ava Morris won the 50 free and the 100 free. South’s Hinson was second in both events.

Carson’s Karis Miller won the 100 backstroke. Siscoe took second for the Raiders.

South’s only individual winner was Patterson in the 100 breaststroke, but there were quite a few events in which South placed second and third. The Raiders were 1-2-3 in the 100 breaststroke. The points piled up. South Rowan scored 352 to East’s 245. No other team had 50.

“I don’t know that anyone had a shocking meet for us, but Sadie (Siscoe) has had a really amazing season,” Epley said. “She’s cut 10 seconds in the backstroke, She’s been able to unlock her swimming talent.”

Epley also raves about Patterson. Like most of South’s swimmers, she’s multi-sport athlete, a runner and part of South’s state champion cheer squad.

“I don’t know of any person who works harder,” Epley said. “She’s up at 5 practicing cheer and swimming in the afternoon or she’s swimming at 5 a.m. and cheering in the afternoon. She was a junior marshal and is at the top of the senior class academically. One thing about swimmers, you never have to worry about GPAs. If they have the discipline to swim, they’re going to do well in the classroom.”

Epley is confident South will continue to get tougher in swimming in the years to come, as stroke techniques become more consistent and the numbers grow.

“We’re going to keep building at South, and the RAC programs also are thriving at Salisbury and East,” Epley said. “With some of the young swimmers that we’re working with now, Rowan swimming is going to get a lot stronger in a few years.”

Girls team scores

South Rowan 352, East Rowan 245, Salisbury 49, Carson 41, West Rowan 30, North Rowan 19

Golds — South 3, East 5, Salisbury 2, Carson 1

200 medley relay — 1. South 2:16.81 (Siscoe, Patterson, Blume, Glenn), 2. East 2:18.40 (Sechriest, Mastro, Lineberger, Morris), 3. South B 2:40.38 (Smokstad, Workman, Duckworth, Thomas)

200 free — 1. Sechriest (ER) 2:09.27, 2. Miller (CAR) 2:28.96, 3. Blume (SR) 2:34.36

200 IM — 1. Lineberger (ER) 2:32.40, 2. Draughn (SR) 2:59.19, 3. Patterson (SR) 3:11.50

50 free — 1. Morris (SHS) 28.06, 2. Hinson (SR) 29.87, 3. Duckworth (SR) 32,78

100 butterfly — 1. Lineberger (ER) 1:10.84, 2. Blume (SR) 1:21.22, 3. Duckworth (SR) 1:40.73

100 free — 1. Morris (SHS) 1:05.28, 2. Hinson (SR) 1:09.75, 3. Lentz (ER) 1:12.52

500 free — 1. Sechriest (ER) 5:40.59; 2. Smokstad (SR) 7:24.59, 3. Glenn (SR) 7:54.68

200 free relay — 1. South 1:59.94 (Hinson, Draughn, Patterson, Siscoe), 2. East 2:19.26 (Eagle, Berry, Mastro, Lentz), 3. South B 2:23.74 (Hatley, Shue, Wheeler, Duckworth)

100 backstroke — 1. Miller (CAR) 1:11.97, 2. Siscoe (SR) 1:14.08, 3. Draughn (SR) 1:20.89

100 breaststroke — 1. Patterson (SR) 1:31.08, 2. Shue (SR) 1:45.49, 3. Workman (SR) 1:48.71

400 free relay — 1. East 4:29.61 (Lineberger, Berry, Lentz, Sechriest, Buck*), 2. South 4:37.73 (Blume, Hinson, Draughn, Siscoe), 3. South B 5:26:15 (Smokstad,  Roseborough, Belk, Tilley)