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Skylar Zuleger and Zach Hirata were double winners in individual events and the Davie swim teams scored a combined 183 points in an exciting home meet against West Forsyth and Reynolds on Jan. 8.
The Davie boys finished second with 104 points. West Forsyth had 118 and Reynolds was third with 81. The scoring on the girls’ side: Reynolds 141, West 83, Davie 79.
Hirata won the 100 butterfly (54.19) and 100 back (58.20), as well as helping two relay teams to first place. In the 200 medley relay (1:46.24), he was teamed with Logan Zuleger, Xaiden Groff and Josh McBride. The same foursome took the top spot in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:40.10.
George Crowley (200 free) and McBride (500 free) turned in second-place finishes for the Davie boys.
On the girls’ side, S. Zuleger’s first-place times were 25.84 in the 50 free and 1:07.53 in the 100 breast.
“This meet had several underclassmen bringing home personal bests,” assistant coach Katie Shoaf said. “Seeing their hard work pay off will be a good confidence boost with conference champs in less than two weeks.”
S. Zuleger was everywhere, adding three second places to her day’s work. She was runnerup in the 100 free and she was on the 200 medley and 200 free relay teams that placed second. Both relay teams included Emory Butler, Sarah Rajacich and Samara McDaniel. Butler was second three times, including the 100 free.
“(Davie had) big-time drops and great first-time swims from Ethan Diemer, Caleb McBride, Lily Wright, George Crowley, Hayden Key, Callen Whitten, Kayden Richardson, Olivia Dufur, Marion Shelton and Brayden Brooks,” coach Tak Hirata said. “This was a difficult mid-week meet coming off of holidays and snow days. We came out less than energetic as a group, though several of the younger swimmers had great swims to keep us competitive early on. I’m proud of several of them for swimming tough events, including Olivia, Marion, Hayden and Luke in the 200 IM’s and Brayden Brooks swimming the 100 fly for the first time in HS career. She wanted to do it to say she conquered every event in her high school career – and we were so proud to see her accomplish it. Josh and Ethan swam great 500’s to score well for us, while our top swimmers including Zach and Sky were able to grab some needed victories in their events. We left quite a few points on the table, with some not swimming up to their potential and lack of focus on some key relays, which was really tough to see. We have come such a long way in the last few years to be able to compete in the conference and I couldn’t motivate them enough on this day to keep them focused to get the key points to beat West – that’s on me. Overall we are very proud of this group for their growth and improvements over the course of this season. To keep having continued big-time drops the way some of them continue to do late in the season is amazing. We are also starting to see some leaders step up from the younger group, which is very encouraging to see for the future of this program. We will get them ready for the conference and regional championships. For those who put in the time and effort, it’s their time to shine. They’re about to see the fruit of their hard work and we’re excited to be there to celebrate it with them.”