Cyclones swimmers avenge loss against Vikings to celebrate senior night

Published 2:05 pm Friday, January 6, 2023

The Elizabethton Cyclone swim team won 99-83 against the Vikings of Tennessee High Thursday night.  The Cyclones were eager to avenge their November 21 loss to the Vikings.  Having just completed the most rigorous segment of the training season, clocking more than fifty miles in the EHS pool during the Christmas break, the Cyclones proved that hard work pays off by making significant and impressive improvements.

The lady Cyclones won nine of their eleven events, beginning the night with the 200 Medley Relay team of Eva El Helou, Mia Whaley, Cadie Digby, and Cara Carr.  Digby followed that event with a personal best and State qualifying time of 2:11.09 in the 200 Freestyle and another improvement on her previous qualifying time in the 100 freestyle.  Two of the most impressive swims of the night were performed by Emersen Jetmore and Sophia James in the 200 Individual Medley.  Jetmore dropped more than 20 seconds while James dropped an astonishing 18.50 seconds in the event that displays a swimmer’s mastery of all four competitive strokes.  Both swimmers continued to show the dividends of their holiday training by improving in their second events as well.  James improved upon her previous best in the 100 Butterfly by 2.44 seconds for the win and Jetmore in the 100 Backstroke by 3.89 seconds.  Layla El Helou also swam the 200 Individual Medley with a personal best improvement of 6.82 seconds.  Not to be outdone, Eva El Helou also impressed by cutting a significant 11.44 seconds in the 500 Freestyle for a time of 7:10.37 behind teammate Grace Artz who finished second in the event.  Raven Rogers also improved in the distance event by cutting 2.82 from her personal best time.  Tori Frakes improved upon her previous best in the 100 Freestyle by over nine seconds.  With her sights set on qualifying for State in the 50 Freestyle, Cara Carr won the event by improving on her previous best with a time of 29.06, edging closer to the 26.99 cut by .84 seconds.  Teammate Whaley, also improved in the shortest and fastest event in the lineup by .41 seconds for a second-place finish behind Carr.  One school record was broken during the night by the team of Carr, Whaley, James, and Digby in the 200 Freestyle relay with a time of 1:55.65.  Jasey Hyatt and Ella Edmonson also improved in both of their events as well.  Hyatt dropped 4.64 and 3.82 seconds in her 200 Freestyle and 100 Backstroke while Edmondson cut 4.14 and 4.28 seconds in her 100 Butterfly and 100 Freestyle.

On the boy’s side, the Medley Relay team of Kody Broussard, Liam Cannon, RJ Brewer, and Morgan Roszel improved on their previous season’s best time by .78 seconds to win the event.  The 200 Freestyle saw Broussard improve on his previous state qualifying time by 1.07 seconds.  Teammates Cannon and Jacob Frickel impressed with personal best times in the event, dropping 16.25 and 11.64 seconds consecutively.  Frickel continued his successful night with a cut of 10.61 seconds in his 100 Breaststroke while Cannon touched the wall just .84 seconds from the State qualifying time in a personal best effort.  Roszel surprised everyone with his state qualifying performance in the 200 Individual Medley, proving that knee surgery just five months ago was not going to hold him back in his favorite event.  He continued to astound in the 500 Freestyle, swimming a personal best 5:14.72, improving his time by 5.53 seconds and pushing teammate Brewer to drop 23.56 seconds to qualify for state in his first event with a time of 5:34.88.  John Odom, new to the sport at the beginning of the season, continued his steady improvement in the 50 and 100 Freestyle by dropping 1.85 and 4.90 seconds in each of the events.

The Cyclone swimmers compete at the Kingsport Aquatic Center both Saturday and Tuesday in their final regular season meets.  Saturday’s meet, hosted by Virginia High School, begins at 11 am.  Admission is $5.  Tuesday’s meet, hosted by Dobyns-Bennett, begins at 5:30 pm.  Admission is $6.  The public is welcome to both meets.