Seahorses seize the Western Highlands Conference
Owen swim team sweeps championship meet
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
January 24, 2023
A 2023 champion emerged from the pool at the Buncombe County Schools Aquatic Center, Jan. 20, as the Owen Seahorses completed a sweep of the Western Highlands Conference.
First-place finishes by the boys and girls swim teams elevated Owen to 138 points, topping Draughn (119) and Mountain Heritage (50).
Owen hosted the WHC Championship Meet, where all 20 swimmers competed against Draughn, Mountain Heritage, Madison and Avery in 24 individual and team events. The Seahorses won first place in nine heats while registering 27 finishes in the top three.
Senior captain Stephen Henson earned four first-place medals in individual and relay events, while his fellow senior and captain, Riley Johnson, collected four of his own. Both swimmers earned medals with the Seahorse 200 medley (1:59.89) and 400 freestyle (4:12.65) relay teams.
Henson’s 1:01.03 in the individual 100 yard butterfly outpaced second place by 16 seconds, and his 2:20.81 showing in the 200 yard individual medley, a personal best, was 12 seconds ahead of the second spot. Johnson took first place in the 200 yard individual freestyle with a personal best of 2:14.45. He posted another personal best and regional qualifying time of 1:09.53 in the 100 yard breast stroke, edging out Draughn senior Trey Jensen by .03 seconds.
Sophomore Caden Little, who also earned a medal with the 200 yard medley relay team, was the third member of the boys team to register a first-place finish, with a personal best performance of 6:18.59 in the 500 yard freestyle.
The boys, who finished second behind Draughn in 2022, slipped past their conference rival, 78-77, to capture this year’s title.
The Owen girls team, led by a pair of top finishes from Abriella Taylor, outscored second place Mountain Heritage, 60-50. The junior took first in the 100 yard butterfly with a personal best, 1:21.05, two heats after winning the 50 yard freestyle in 00:32.80.
Six individual swimmers - including junior Elsa Quam, senior Sadie de Beer and sophomore Grace Vale - and four relays teams posted finishes in the top three.
“They did an amazing job,” third-year head coach Beth Rathbone said of her team. “We give them the tools they need to go out and compete, but at the end of the day it boils down to their mentality. This is a group that’s very close, and these athletes don’t perform for themselves, they do it for the team.”
The Seahorses, who entered the current campaign down three seniors from a roster that finished 41st in the NCHSAA 1A/2A State Championship last year, are often fueled by chemistry, the coach continued.
“We rely on them to set goals for themselves, and they do a great job of pushing and supporting each other,” Rathbone said. “We lost three big producers from last year’s team, but we came into this season committed to having fun and showing everybody who we are.”
Eighteen of the 20 swimmers on the Owen roster began their careers with the Black Mountain Stingrays, a recreation swim team re-established by Rathbone in 2014.
“I’ve known almost all of these kids since they were little, and it feels great to see them keep pushing themselves in the pool for so long,” she said. “This really is a humble group of kids, and you could really see how much they all motivate each other during the conference championship.”
The Seahorses will travel to McDowell County, Wednesday, Jan. 25, to compete in a four-team meet before closing out the regular season at the BCS Aquatic Center at 11 a.m., Saturday, Jan. 28.
“We want this season to be a memorable experience for them,” Rathbone said. “So our focus going into these final meets is going to be to push those who are really close to the times the need in the events they want to pursue in Regionals.”
Photos of the Owen Seahorses in the 2023 Western Highlands Conference Championship Meet can be viewed in the gallery at the top of the page.