If the goal of a swim coach is to get his or her team peaking in time for the postseason, George Washington coach Melissa Case sure has a lot of reasons to be proud of her work this year.
George Washington's Chris Kay swims the backstroke leg of the boys 200-yard medley relay, which the Patriots won in a time of 1:46.30 at the Mountain State Athletic Conference meet Saturday.
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If the goal of a swim coach is to get his or her team peaking in time for the postseason, George Washington coach Melissa Case sure has a lot of reasons to be proud of her work this year.
The Patriots swept both the boys and girls team titles and cruised to 771 combined points, besting second-place Parkersburg by 439 Saturday at the Mountain State Athletic Conference Championship meet held at the University of Charleston Natatorium.
"It's pretty awesome to be a conference champion and of course they wanted to defend it," Case said. "We've got one guy with a shoulder problem and one girl out sick today so the rest of them are stepping up and know they have to."
One of the Patriots' best swimmers, Anna Davis, missed the meet due to illness, but while her absence was felt by GW, it also became a rallying point for the rest of the squad, especially on the girls side.
Senior Savannah Slaughter continued what has already been a solid campaign by taking a win in the 100-yard backstroke. She was also part of winning relay teams in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle events.
"It's pretty cool," Slaughter said. "I'm glad I won it. It's just been a good season so far and I'm hoping to keep it going."
Slaughter said that with Davis in the fold, the Patriots are setting their sights at some lofty goals as the postseason begins.
"We're hoping [Davis] comes back and gets better," Slaughter said. "We're just trying to make up for her and looking to get her back into the swing of things so she can come back and be ready for states and be there to help us win.
"We're just all going to go in there with the mindset that we're going to win and do it. Everybody is just going to do the best we can and we're hoping that will do it for us."
Overall, Case was fairly pleased with what she saw on both sides and believes her teams could be poised to make runs at state championships.
"They've done pretty well," Case said. "I was really wanting to see some decent relay swims and we've had some decent relay swims. It also gave the kids one more chance to get a faster time to seed them at regionals, so that's what we were hoping for and some of them have done that.
"I had a couple of them today that did not have a lifetime swim which upset them. But the way I look at it is if they have a decent swim today I want to see a better one next week."
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GW sweeps to boys, girls MSAC swim titles
If the goal of a swim coach is to get his or her team peaking in time for the postseason, George Washington coach Melissa Case sure has a lot of reasons to be proud of her work this year.
The Patriots swept both the boys and girls team titles and cruised to 771 combined points, besting second-place Parkersburg by 439 Saturday at the Mountain State Athletic Conference Championship meet held at the University of Charleston Natatorium.
"It's pretty awesome to be a conference champion and of course they wanted to defend it," Case said. "We've got one guy with a shoulder problem and one girl out sick today so the rest of them are stepping up and know they have to."
One of the Patriots' best swimmers, Anna Davis, missed the meet due to illness, but while her absence was felt by GW, it also became a rallying point for the rest of the squad, especially on the girls side.
Senior Savannah Slaughter continued what has already been a solid campaign by taking a win in the 100-yard backstroke. She was also part of winning relay teams in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle events.
"It's pretty cool," Slaughter said. "I'm glad I won it. It's just been a good season so far and I'm hoping to keep it going."
Slaughter said that with Davis in the fold, the Patriots are setting their sights at some lofty goals as the postseason begins.
"We're hoping [Davis] comes back and gets better," Slaughter said. "We're just trying to make up for her and looking to get her back into the swing of things so she can come back and be ready for states and be there to help us win.
"We're just all going to go in there with the mindset that we're going to win and do it. Everybody is just going to do the best we can and we're hoping that will do it for us."
Overall, Case was fairly pleased with what she saw on both sides and believes her teams could be poised to make runs at state championships.
"They've done pretty well," Case said. "I was really wanting to see some decent relay swims and we've had some decent relay swims. It also gave the kids one more chance to get a faster time to seed them at regionals, so that's what we were hoping for and some of them have done that.
"I had a couple of them today that did not have a lifetime swim which upset them. But the way I look at it is if they have a decent swim today I want to see a better one next week."
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If the goal of a swim coach is to get his or her team peaking in time for the postseason, George Washington coach Melissa Case sure has a lot of reasons to be proud of her work this year.
The Patriots swept both the boys and girls team titles and cruised to 771 combined points, besting second-place Parkersburg by 439 Saturday at the Mountain State Athletic Conference Championship meet held at the University of Charleston Natatorium.
"It's pretty awesome to be a conference champion and of course they wanted to defend it," Case said. "We've got one guy with a shoulder problem and one girl out sick today so the rest of them are stepping up and know they have to."
One of the Patriots' best swimmers, Anna Davis, missed the meet due to illness, but while her absence was felt by GW, it also became a rallying point for the rest of the squad, especially on the girls side.
Senior Savannah Slaughter continued what has already been a solid campaign by taking a win in the 100-yard backstroke. She was also part of winning relay teams in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle events.
"It's pretty cool," Slaughter said. "I'm glad I won it. It's just been a good season so far and I'm hoping to keep it going."
Slaughter said that with Davis in the fold, the Patriots are setting their sights at some lofty goals as the postseason begins.
"We're hoping [Davis] comes back and gets better," Slaughter said. "We're just trying to make up for her and looking to get her back into the swing of things so she can come back and be ready for states and be there to help us win.
"We're just all going to go in there with the mindset that we're going to win and do it. Everybody is just going to do the best we can and we're hoping that will do it for us."
Overall, Case was fairly pleased with what she saw on both sides and believes her teams could be poised to make runs at state championships.
"They've done pretty well," Case said. "I was really wanting to see some decent relay swims and we've had some decent relay swims. It also gave the kids one more chance to get a faster time to seed them at regionals, so that's what we were hoping for and some of them have done that.
"I had a couple of them today that did not have a lifetime swim which upset them. But the way I look at it is if they have a decent swim today I want to see a better one next week."
While the Patriots continued their ownership over team bragging rights within the conference, the individual with perhaps the most impressive showing was Capital's Tate Warden.
Warden set meet records in the 200 and 500 freestyle events, eclipsing the mark of former Parkersburg swimmer Tim Phillips in the 200. Phillips is a member of the Ohio State swim team and will attempt to qualify for the United States Olympic team this summer in Omaha, Neb., putting Warden in some pretty prestigious company.
"It feels really good knowing that I've put in all this work," Warden said. "I broke some big-name records today. Being able to come here and break one of [Phillips]' records really gives me a lot of confidence and makes me feel good about what I'm doing and what I'm trying to do."
The Capital senior is the defending state champion in the 200 free as well as the 100 butterfly and has committed to swim at Gardner-Webb in North Carolina next year.
But before he becomes a collegiate athlete, there's still a little business to take care of and Warden feels he took a huge step toward those goals on Saturday.
"Today my 200 free, I really targeted that race," Warden said. "It was early in the meet so I wasn't as tired so I really went out for it. I took off two seconds and got All-American consideration time, which is really, really big for me. Really my main goal at states is to get an All-American time. I'll have to drop another two seconds so I think it's really realistic now."
South Charleston's Austin Green also established meet records with wins in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley. Teammate and freshman Adam Poe earned a meet record with a victory in the 50 freestyle while GW's Chris Kay set a new best mark in winning the 100 backstroke event.
On the girls side, Cabell Midland's Alyssa Morris set a meet record in the 50 freestyle with a time of 25.65 and also took home a win in the 100 butterfly. Nitro's Megan Clemens was also a multiple winner with victories in the 200 and 500 freestyle, establishing a meet record in the 500 along the way.
Hurricane's Jack Wright (100 freestyle and 100 butterfly) was also a double winner.
Hurricane, Spring Valley and Huntington rounded out the combined top five.
This article is available only to our premium digital content subscribers.
GW sweeps to boys, girls MSAC swim titles
If the goal of a swim coach is to get his or her team peaking in time for the postseason, George Washington coach Melissa Case sure has a lot of reasons to be proud of her work this year.
The Patriots swept both the boys and girls team titles and cruised to 771 combined points, besting second-place Parkersburg by 439 Saturday at the Mountain State Athletic Conference Championship meet held at the University of Charleston Natatorium.
"It's pretty awesome to be a conference champion and of course they wanted to defend it," Case said. "We've got one guy with a shoulder problem and one girl out sick today so the rest of them are stepping up and know they have to."
One of the Patriots' best swimmers, Anna Davis, missed the meet due to illness, but while her absence was felt by GW, it also became a rallying point for the rest of the squad, especially on the girls side.
Senior Savannah Slaughter continued what has already been a solid campaign by taking a win in the 100-yard backstroke. She was also part of winning relay teams in the 200 medley and 400 freestyle events.
"It's pretty cool," Slaughter said. "I'm glad I won it. It's just been a good season so far and I'm hoping to keep it going."
Slaughter said that with Davis in the fold, the Patriots are setting their sights at some lofty goals as the postseason begins.
"We're hoping [Davis] comes back and gets better," Slaughter said. "We're just trying to make up for her and looking to get her back into the swing of things so she can come back and be ready for states and be there to help us win.
"We're just all going to go in there with the mindset that we're going to win and do it. Everybody is just going to do the best we can and we're hoping that will do it for us."
Overall, Case was fairly pleased with what she saw on both sides and believes her teams could be poised to make runs at state championships.
"They've done pretty well," Case said. "I was really wanting to see some decent relay swims and we've had some decent relay swims. It also gave the kids one more chance to get a faster time to seed them at regionals, so that's what we were hoping for and some of them have done that.
"I had a couple of them today that did not have a lifetime swim which upset them. But the way I look at it is if they have a decent swim today I want to see a better one next week."
