MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Of the eight individual events in the girls state swim meet, six were won by freshmen.
Two of the victories claimed by a freshman came from George Washington’s Madilyn McGlothen, who gave the Patriots a big lift in a dominant performance that allowed them to claim their seventh state championship and first since 2016 at Mylan Park Aquatic Center.
“We knew the girls were going to be very, very strong,” GW head coach Josh Hemsworth said. “The goal was to get somebody in the top twelve of every event that we could. That’s what we needed, they did that and they were able to pull it out.”
McGlothen set a new state record in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:01.40, narrowly eclipsing the old mark of 5:01.46. She also won the 200-yard IM (2:06.64) to give the Patriots their two first-place finishes in a 206-point showing that was plenty good enough to come out on top.
“Madi McGlothen won both her events and helped with the relays,” Hemsworth said. “She’s just a freshman and she helped a lot with the points. We have a bunch of young girls and the good news is they’re here another couple years.”
Parkersburg was runner-up with 166 points, while Wheeling Park (134), Buckhannon-Upshur (127) and Morgantown (113) rounded out the top five.
GW got a pair of second-place efforts from its 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relay teams. The 200 medley quartet of McGlothen, Mackenzie Layne, Emma Martin and Ashlee Wilcher finished in 1:51.20, just behind Parkersburg’s record-setting group of Mary Michael Strobl, Jaden Welsh, Grace Cox and Emma Padden (1:48.84).
Wilcher, Martin, McGlothen and Kara Edstrom completed the 400 freestyle in 3:42.34 to finish behind the aforementioned group from PHS, which took first in 3:40.29.
To add to GW’s excitement, the Patriots’ boys team also won a state championship Friday.
“It’s an amazing opportunity that not a lot of kids get to experience,” Layne said. “Our team is so close, so bonded and we worked through it. It’s just a fun time and really it’s about having fun. It’s so rare with the boys and girls both winning. That’s just incredible. Not a lot of people can say that they’ve been a part of that.”
Other events won by freshmen included: Buckhannon-Upshur’s Cadence Vincent setting a new state record in the 50 freestyle (23.69); Morgantown’s Caroline Riggs in the 200 freestyle (1:53.89); Winfield’s Madeline Foster in the 100 butterfly (56.82) and John Marshall’s Victoria Kidney in the 100 backstroke (57.60).
Like GW, Wheeling Park had two individual wins as juniors Abby Turner and Jenna Bopp took first in the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke, respectively. Bopp’s finish time of 1:04.36 was good for a new state record, while Turner narrowly topped Vincent for her win, 51.65 to 51.71.
Vincent teamed with McKenzie Reynolds, Cameron Zuliani and Alayna Whitehair to give B-U a relay win in the 200 freestyle with a finish time of 1:42.39.