‘I am so proud’: Nation Ford, Fort Mill swimmers earn hardware at 5A state championships

Nation Ford head swim coach Lori Glasco bent over at the waist like she had just been sucker-punched in the gut. In a way, she had.

The Falcons’ boys swim team was in a fight for the 5A state swim title and came up just short losing to J.L. Mann by two points.

Glasco knew it would be close after the boys’ 400-yard freestyle relay swim, the last one of the meet — but she didn’t expect it to be that close.

“That was surprising,” she said. “There were so many strong teams. It came down to the details.”

Nation Ford scored 330.5 points. J.L. Mann won with 332.5 points. The Falcons had just edged Mauldin, a team that finished third with 330 points. Glasco was happy for her team, but it took her a while to catch her breath at how close things were.

“I am so proud of the team because they worked so hard to get here,” she said. “I am kind of in shock.”

Nation Ford didn’t walk away empty handed, though. The Falcons’ 200-yard medley relay team of George Bujoreanu, Lucas Grigat, Sam Reiger and Austin Lockhart, won the state title in that race in a time of 1:37.34. Lockhart, a junior, also won the boys’ 100-yard freestyle race in 46.98 after finishing second in the boys’ 50-yard freestyle race by 0.08 of a second.

“The first race (the 50 free) was not what I wanted, so it fueled me,” Lockhart said. “Having a competitor like (Rock Hill’s) C.J. (Davis) beside me pushed me to give it my best in the last 25 yards.”

The Nation Ford girls’ swim team finished eighth in the state to go along with the boys’ second place finish.

The Fort Mill girls’ team finished fifth and had senior Aubrey Chandler win two state titles in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races. Chandler won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.25 and the 100-yard freestyle in 50.51. She was also part of the 200-yard free relay team that finished second.

Coming into the meet, Chandler knew she’d be racing in some of the last races of her prep career, so she took a care-free approach.

“I just thought, ‘(This) is my last state meet,’ I needed to go all out,” she said. “I felt less pressure, and I just wanted to enjoy it more.”

The wins for Chandler gave her six total individual state titles to go along with two relay state titles she won back in 2017.

Fort Mill head coach Cindy Van Buskirk said she was proud of her team, but she knew that the youth she has on her team is something she will be able to build on in the future. The Fort Mill boys’ team finished 15th overall.

“My swimmers worked hard just to get here,” Van Buskirk said. “This is one of those state meets where we learned a lot. I am very proud of our swimmers.”

In the 3A meet, the Catawba Ridge girls finished 10th in the state and the boys finished 12th. The highest finish for the boys was Alex Ritz with a fourth-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley. The highest finish for the girls was Rielly Lavery with a third-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle.

Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM