This past Friday night, the RMA Swim Team journeyed to the Twin Rivers YMCA in New Bern for their annual conference meet. Five teams were included in the Coastal Independent Conference this year and RMA performed very well at this particular meet, just as they did all season long. To make this meet even more special, prior to departing for New Bern, an anonymous benefactor provided a pre-meet meal for the swim team to wish them good luck and recognize them for their hard work throughout the season!

Once at the meet, the girls’ team got off to a great start. First and second year swimmers Haven Ross, Anna Scott Wingfield, Vivian Rogers, and Juhi Salunke received a bronze medal in the 200m Medley Relay. This race was followed by the 200m freestyle, where senior Claire Stanovich also took 3^rd, securing a bronze medal. The boys’ team also made waves when Spencer Bulluck was awarded a silver medal for his personal best in the 50m freestyle. Following after Spencer, Claire Stanovich was able to steal a first place win when she beat the second place finisher by only 0.03 seconds in the girls 50m freestyle. At this point in the meet, coaches were given updates on the overall scores and the girls’ team was in second place, only trailing the Epiphany School by ten points. Everyone was on pins and needles to see how the rest of the meet would go.

Next came the 100m freestyle, in which another senior, Deanna Mayo, was awarded bronze. The girls were continuing to rack up points and senior Ashley Bissette kept this streak going by placing 3^rd in the 500m freestyle – one of the hardest events for a swimmer to master as they have to swim 20 laps straight. Ashley was able to drop 13 seconds and finish with a time of 7:02.86 minutes to ensure that she would receive a medal in the end. As soon as the 500m freestyle was over, another relay began. The girls’ A relay team consisting of starter Deanna Mayo, Gracie Cox, Ashley Bissette, and anchor Claire Stanovich swam fast and hard and were able to end the race with a first place finish. The boys’ relay team, Trevor Graham, Mac Lord, Stephen Ward, and Spencer Bulluck also placed well as they finished in 3^rd. Both teams were doing fantastic as Deanna Mayo was awarded the last individual top 3 standing for RMA when she took 2^nd place in the 100m Breaststroke.

Finally finishing out the night of races were the boys and girls 400m freestyle relays. The same relay team that placed first in the girls’ 200m freestyle relay also made up the team for this longer relay. The girls were not originally seeded to win this event, but when Deanna Mayo broke away on the third leg of the relay, the team knew that they could stand a chance at beating their rivals from the Epiphany school. Sure enough, that is exactly what they did as they finished off the meet with yet another first place win. The boys’ team also scooped up a last minute 3^rd place finish in this relay.

After the end of the meet, it was time for the awards ceremony. Medals were given out to the top 3 swimmers from each boys and girls event along with honorable mention all-conference, all-conference, Swimmer of the Year, Coach of the Year, Conference Champions’ Runner-Up, and Conference Champions. RMA racked up an impressive number of medals and awards. Ashley Bissette and Trevor Graham were awarded honorable mention all-conference and Claire Stanovich and Spencer Bulluck received all-conference awards for their hard work throughout the season. As far as overall standings, the boys’ team finished in fourth place out of five teams which is outstanding considering their team consisted of only four boys and the winning team consisted of 25 male swimmers. The RMA girls’ team finished as Conference Champions’ Runner-Up as they only trailed behind The Epiphany School by six points. Deanna Mayo describes the overall score by saying, “We were so thrilled to be able to take this title of runner’s-up in the conference. It is crazy to think that there were only a few points standing between us and first place. Considering that Epiphany has beaten us at every swim meet this season by a great number of points, I would say that we did an excellent job on Friday night.”

A special shout out goes to Coach Jordan Carter because although she did not win coach of the year (the coach of the conference champions automatically received that award), she did an outstanding job throughout the season! The team would have never been able to end their regular season in such a great way had it not been for her hard work and dedication to making them strive to swim to the best of their abilities!

The regular season may be over for the swim team, but the state meet will be held on February 16, 2015 at the Greensboro Aquatics Center. State qualifiers include Ashley Bissette, Spencer Bulluck, Gracie Cox, Trevor Graham, Mac Lord, Deanna Mayo, Claire Stanovich, and Stephen Ward. Good luck to all and GO EAGLES!