The Blue Demon wrestling team is slated to begin the 2018 season and will be looking for its 18th straight state title.
This week, the program received a special honor as it has been named the “Sports Team of the Decade” by the News Messenger.
Consider this, the first time this wrestling team won a state title: Wikipedia was launched and George W. Bush was sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States.
The streak is unheard of in the state of Virginia, but the program is chasing several schools around the country that have established unbelievable marks. Those include: (thanks to help from Max Preps)
32 — Carmel (Ind.), girls swimming
The Greyhounds hold the record for most consecutive state championships in any sport and it’s possible Carmel might have the greatest dynasty of all time, regardless of sport. Carmel has been named national champion 11 times since the streak began. The Carmel freestyle relay teams appear in the national record book multiple times and hold the top three marks all-time in the 400-freestyle and five of the top eight times in the 200-freestyle, including the top mark.
30 — Bolles (Jacksonville, Fla.), boys swimming
Bolles has been named national champions by Swimming World 10 times in the past 30 , including six years in a row between 2010 and 2015. Bolles has produced a total of 50 Olympians (men and women) since 1972. Most recently, Ryan Murphy won three gold medals at the 2016 Olympics for Team USA.
30 — St. Xavier (Louisville, Ky.), boys swimming
The Tigers have won 54 state titles in their history, the most by any program in any sport in high school history. St. Xavier also has an 11-year championship win streak and a seven-year win streak.
30 — Brophy College Prep (Phoenix), boys swimming
Brophy College Prep has won 40 state titles in its history with coach Pat O’Neill winning the last 12 in a row. During his tenure as head coach of the Broncos, O’Neill had a perfect record as he never lost a dual meet and won a state championship every year. He resigned last year to take a head coaching job at Red Mountain.
30 — Mount Anthony (Bennington, Vt.), wrestling
Coach Scott Legacy reportedly started the program in 1985-86 with just six wrestlers. Three years later, he won the first of his 28 straight state championships. Legacy left the program in 2016 to start the wrestling program at Castleton University. During Legacy’s tenure, Mount Anthony posted a dual-meet record of 654-35-2, had 168 individual champions, 84 All-Americans and seven national champions.
28 — Bolles (Jacksonville, Fla.), girls swimming
Ashley Whitney and Trina Jackson both won gold medals as the members of the 800-meter freestyle team for Team USA at the 1996 Olympics.
22 — Episcopal (Baton Rouge, La.), boys cross country
Coach Claney Duplechin was the national boys cross country Coach of the Year by the National High School Athletic Coaches Association. He has won 51 state titles between cross country and track and field while at Episcopal.
22 — Lander Valley (Lander, Wyo.), boys swimming
Last year, Lander Valley won a state championship by winning eight of the 11 races and set a pair of state records in the process.
20 — Hawken (Gates Mills, Ohio), girls swimming
Hawken has 88 individual champions and 52 relay winners in school history. They also hold five of the 11 Division II individual and relay records at the state meet.
18 — Bishop England (Charleston, S.C.), girls volleyball
Bishop England holds the national record for volleyball with 28 overall state titles and 18 in a row.
18 — Jefferson (Ga.), wrestling
Jefferson has won 18 straight traditional state tournament championships and 17 straight dual meet state titles. The only reason Jefferson doesn’t have more dual meet state titles is that meet state titles for the tournament has only existed for 17 years. A total of 73 Jefferson wrestlers have won state titles.
–Staff reports
