MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Huntington High School had a rather forgetful swim season a year ago.
Not long after, Highlanders’ head coach Emily Randolph felt she identified why.
“We had a rough year last year and we weren’t being ourselves and took ourselves too serious,” Randolph said. “The meet didn’t go so great for us because of that. We went into this thinking we’re going to be us.”
By being themselves, the Highlanders put together dominant performances on both days of the WVSSAC State Swim Meet at Mylan Park Aquatic Center. In turn, Huntington notched its first state championship in swimming, totaling 186 points to best runners-up Parkersburg South and Bridgeport, which registered 163 points each.
One day after Keon McClure won the 200-yard freestyle and 100 freestyle and teammate Luke Adkins claimed a first-place finish in the 50 freestyle, the Highlanders set new state records in both the 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay to finish first in those events as well.
In the 200, McClure and Adkins joined forces with Hawke Maynard and Christopher Young to finish in 1:27.54 — good for a victory by more than 2 full seconds of a quartet from Parkersburg south that finished second.
To conclude the state meet, McClure, Adkins, Young and Liam McClure won the 400 by more than 3 seconds at 3:16.60.
“We’re goofy, we’re silly, we dress up and wear cowboy hats,” Randolph said. “We ride in the car together on the way here singing songs with the windows down. We want to have fun first and also try to win.
“That’s just who they are. They’re all funny, great kids and to try to take them out of their element and make them be serious is not who they are. They want to socialize and say hi everybody to they like. That’s where they succeed. If I try to make them be somebody else, they don’t succeed.”
Huntington’s boys weren’t the only team to win their first state championship. The same distinction belongs to the Elkins girls, which totaled 184.5 points to coast to a crown. Morgantown was runner-up with 135 points.
The Tigers punctuated their team title by winning the 400 freestyle relay as Lilly Irons, Emily Durst, Lilly Anger and Rachel Shryock finished in 3:45.52 to take first and boost the EHS point total by 32.
On Thursday, Elkins also won the 200 medley relay when Shryock, Emma Ujvagi, Irons and Anger finished in 1:54.61.
“Our girls team is deep and that’s what won it for us,” EHS head coach Aimee Cain said.
Also boosting the Tigers’ point total was Shryock’s runner-up finish Thursday in the 200 freestyle and Ujvagi’s runner-up finish in the 200 individual medley.
“We told the kids, ‘keep your eyes forward and keep your eyes on your lane. Don’t look side to side,’” EHS assistant coach Seth Blake said. “There’s a lot of noise and they had to let that go, focus on what we’re doing — and focus they did. It’s awesome.”
Additionally, Irons was second in the 100 freestyle, Anger took third in the 50 freestyle and the team of Leah Ours, Sophia Hornick, Durst and Ujvagi took third in the 200 freestyle relay at 1:47.13 to increase their team’s total by 24 points.
“Most teams can build two really good relays and we were able to build a third really good relay that came in third place,” Cain said. “Those are huge points.”
McClure entered the second day of the meet with two individual state championships, as did Jordan Claypoole of the Parkersburg South girls team.
By the end of Friday’s action, three other swimmers had two individual titles — Householder and Charleston Catholic’s Lily Patnoe on the girls side and George Washington’s Kenneth McGlothen on the boys side.
Householder split up her state championships, first garnering the 200 individual medley at 2:08.05 and adding to her hardware collection Friday by finishing first in the 500 freestyle at 5:12.38.
“Tried to eat well and get good sleep, and when I couldn’t sleep, I tried to lay there and visualize my goals,” Householder said. “My time last year was faster than this year, but I also had more people pushing me last year and I’m still really happy with my time.”
Patnoe won the 100 freestyle Thursday at 54.14 and claimed her second state championship Friday in the 100 breaststroke at 1:08.48.
Like Householder, McGlothen won a title each day — first in the individual medley (1:51.92) and again Friday in the 500 freestyle (4:39.78).
“The key today was going out with a mindset knowing I have the ability to succeed,” McGlothen said. “I had to trust in my training and understand no matter what I do, my team would be proud of me and I could be proud of myself.”
Huntington’s Lauren Lockwood became the Highlanders’ first female swimmer to win a state championship and did so in close fashion with a finish time of 1:02.76 in the 100 backstroke, allowing her to edge Charleston Catholic’s Izzy Paulson (1:02.93).
“Every first place we wanted, we got,” Randolph said. “Every relay record we could get, we got. We broke some school records and had our first ever girls state champion, so that was huge, too. It couldn’t have gone any better.”
Parkersburg’s South’s Quade Harris was the boys state champion in the 100 backstroke at 52.01, while Elkins’ Isaac Anger dominated the 100 breaststroke and took first with a 57:52 finish.
The girls 200 freestyle relay was won by Parkersburg South’s Claypoole, Camryn McLain, Vada Hafer and Paige Johnson at 1:44.16.
Prior to 2024, the George Washington girls had won four straight championships and the Parkersburg South boys had won two straight.