Patriots sweep City/County
The Daily Progress/Andrew Shurtleff
Western Albemarle’s Natalie Cronk swims to victory in the girls 100-meter butterfly during the City/County Challenge.
Published: January 8, 2009
By Ryan Yemen
Daily Progress correspondent
Heading into the women’s 100-yard butterfly at the City/County Challenge, Western Albemarle’s Natalie Cronk had finished behind Albemarle’s Holly Harper more than a handful of times.
“I was really, really nervous before [the race],” Cronk said. “I was under a lot of pressure because Holly is just a really good swimmer.”
The two put on a show for the crowd by going stroke for stroke all the way until the end of the race. For the first time, Cronk finished out in front.
“I was so surprised, I did not think that I could beat her,” Cronk said. “Over at [Jefferson Swim League] she always out-touched me, so I didn’t think I had a chance.”
However, Cronk’s victory wasn’t enough to take down the Patriots in the team standings. Western had a strong start to the night, but Albemarle crept back out in front to win by 27 points at UVa’s Aquatic and Fitness Center. Charlottesville placed third.
Harper rebounded in the 100 backstroke. She finished in 59.5 seconds, a Group AAA state qualifying time, and edged out Cronk, who finished at 1:00.76.
“I hadn’t gone under a minute for like a year so it was really exciting,” Harper said. “I was really happy and I kind of wanted to redeem myself.”
Other notable winners in the girls races included Emma McKinley, who had a strong night for the Warriors by winning both the 100- and 200-yard freestyles.
“I’m better at the 200 so my main challenge was the 100,” McKinley said. “I just tried to keep my stroke really smooth.”
The Albemarle boys completed the sweep of the meet by running away with first place, finishing ahead of Western by 164 points. Charlottesville placed in third, just 13 points behind the Warriors.
Andrew Starr, Roger Fan, Ian Joyce and Sean Cudahy paced the Patriots by winning at least one race each.
Those four swimmers combined to sweep the boys 200 medley relay. The Patriots’ time of 1:42.07 was five seconds ahead of second-place Western.
Albemarle swept all three relays, as the team of C.J. Trachta, John Leonard, Matt Solomon and Jack McHugh won the boys 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.55, edging out Charlottesville. The Patriots team of Starr, Fan, Trachta and Joyce won the men’s 400 freestyle relay in 3:20.62 — a Group AAA state qualifying time.
Cudahy won the 500 freestyle, lapping his next closest opponent.
“We’re coming off some of the most intense winter training,” Cudahy said. “In this race I just wanted to get out really fast, and just go for it from the very beginning.”
The first place finish wasn’t Cudahy’s only accomplishment. His 5:07.88 was his personal best time in the event.
“I have to say I’m pretty proud of this time,” Cudahy said. “I hadn’t beaten my best time by more than a second in more than two years.”
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Reader Reactions
While I completely believe swimmers on the other teams should be recognized, the lead to this story was completely inappropriate. It could easily have started with Holly Harper coming back with a win, then mentioning her earlier loss. The angle here obviously should have been a win by the Patriots, but this was not accomplished.
The AHS boys have had an incredible season, and are hoping to break a 200 point lead by the end of the year. Also, they hardly “edged out” Charlottesville—they won by more than 3 seconds. The girls are also doing well, and are especially proud to have the City/County trophy this year because they haven’t possessed it since 2006. And how about the fact that Harper is a freshman and is already carrying the girls’ team? Or the girls’ narrow win in the 200 medley?
Why weren’t these things mentioned? To make room for facts on other swimmers? Well then, what about Daniel Foky’s spectacular 100 and 50 Frees? Or the incredibly close race between Annie Foky and Katherine Nicholson in the 50 free?
And that picture…why not one of the AHS swimmers holding the trophy? Or at least a member of the winning team?
I know you can’t include everything, but this article was truly disappointing.
I feel that the reporting of the meet was up to par because the focus was on the top two teams, AHS and WAHS, who battled all night. It is fair that some feel more could have been said about other teams but those that have posted coments may want to review thier info becasuse it is wrong.
Liz-“I am wondering why your reported decided to focus on a swimmer from WAHS and did not interview any of the coaches or women swimmers from AHS.“
In the first few paragraphs of the story this quote can be found: ““I hadn’t gone under a minute for like a year so it was really exciting,” Harper said. “I was really happy and I kind of wanted to redeem myself.”“ Harper is a freshmen swimmer on the AHS swimteam.
Anne-“Regarding last nights city/county meet, CHS could have at least been mentioned given that they hosted the meet.“
Sorry Anne but CHS didn’t host the meet AHS did.
So other than it not being about the AHS swimmers, what about the dive portion? There was not one word about the Diving part of the City/County meet at Crow Pool. Casey Kyriacopoulos(AHS) won First place in the 11 dive section and Stefanie Oswald(AHS) won first place in the 6 dive section
Congratulations to ALL the swimmers last night. However, parents need to realize they are insiders and often know a lot more about each individual athlete than reporters. Reporters have to capture what they see. The photograph of Natalie Cronk is excellent and she is definitely one of the most talented athletes in the area. She deserves the recognition for her accomplishments.
Thanks for the other comments pointing out the potential bias for youth sports reporting from the Daily Progress, I am glad that I am not the only person who shares these concerns. I am sure that it if really hard to cover all events in this area and provide balanced coverage of teams and individuals. I was so thrilled to see the headlines (Patriots sweep City/County) that the meet deserved and so baffled to read the first half of the article which focused primarily on the WAHS girls??? The AHS Boys have gone undefeated in the AAA Division this year and won both Districts and Regionals last year (after the death of their coach in mid-season)and yet the Daily Progress failed to cover these great accomplishments even though they were consistently reported to the Progress after each meet. I hope our news people will work harder to give a balanced and fair coverage of high school sports in the area.
Thank you, Liz, for expressing what many of us have wondered about regarding area sports. I have several children involved in local high school athletics who have accomplished great things in their respective sports, but they and their teammate’s accomplishments are often overlooked. Perhaps CHS doesn’t win the ‘game’, but a players’ individual stats are noteworthy. I have witnessed a child throw down the daily progress in disgust in a glowing mention of an opponents goalie saves that didn’t come close to hers. She was left with the impression that because we lost the game and she played for CHS, her stopping percentage didn’t matter.
Regarding last nights city/county meet, CHS could have at least been mentioned given that they hosted the meet.
Congratulations to the AHS Men’s and Women’s swim teams for a fantastic meet last night.
In no way do I wish to diminish the accomplishments of all the swimmers at the meet, but I am wondering why your reported decided to focus on a swimmer from WAHS and did not interview any of the coaches or women swimmers from AHS.
This meet included swim teams from AHS, CHS, Covenant, MoHS, STAB and WAHS, something that is not reported in this article. There seems to be a bias at the Daily Progress toward the athletic program at WAHS, clearly illustrated by the reporting about this meet. Next time, please try to get the perspective of the win by the winning team and include the accomplishments of all of the teams involved.
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