Blacksburg and J.R. Tucker high schools battled to the very end Saturday at the Bruins Bash swim meet and by the time the dust had cleared, or in this case the foggy goggles had cleared, the two schools had split decisions.
Blacksburg would take the girls title with a 441 to 424 margin, while J.R. Tucker took the boys team mark with 404 points ahead of Blacksburg with 348 points.
Salem would finish third in the girls’ competition and fourth in the boys with Christiansburg girls in sixth and boys in 11th place.
J.R. Tucker started the meet with a win in the boys’ 200-Yard Medley Relay with Blacksburg in second.
The story was the same on the girls’ side of the pool in the same event as Blacksburg was three seconds behind J.R. Tucker, and the story would repeat itself over and over again in individual competition.
Blacksburg Leo Yang would finish second in the boys’ 200-Yard Freestyle with teammate Ryan Zolovick in fourth.
The Bruins would pick major wins in the girls’ 200 Freestyle with Laura Hodge in first and Cameron Seeley in second. Christiansburg’s Megan Cummins was third.
In the 200 IM, Blacksburg’s Robert Hodge was third and Hannah Jirsa third in the girl’s event.
Lewis Rockwell was second in the boys 50-Yard Freestyle again behind a J.R. Tucker competitor.
Christiansburg’s Evan Matthis was fifth in the boys one-Meter Diving event, while Blacksburg’s Heidi Treser took fourth in the girls’ event.
Laura Hodge then picked up a major win for the Lady Bruins in the 100-Yard Butterfly.
Blacksburg’s Brandon fan would cross the line in the 100-Yard Freestyle in fourth, and the Bruins taking 3-4 on the girls’ side of the event with Abby Reilly towing Lexi Nussbaum with Christiansburg’s Rickey Horton in fifth. Blacksburg’s Emma Poff finished sixth.
Yang and Rockwell finished second and third in the boys’ 500-Yard Freestyle, and Christiansburg’s Megan Cummins would claim the girls top spot in the event.
The Blacksburg boys’ kept it close in the final event of the day but again finished second to J.R. Tucker in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay.
