Clay County Times

Members of the Bolles Sharks Club performed well at the 2022 Winter Junior Championships-East at the Greensboro Aquatic Center December 7-10. Bolles won the men’s team scoring, placed seventh in the women’s and the combined team placed fourth out of 26 eligible programs. Over 100 teams participated in Junior Nationals, but a program must have both men’s and women’s teams scoring to be eligible for combined recognition.

Bolles improved on a 22nd place finish in the women’s standings in 2021, almost tripling their score with several exceptional relay performances. Bolles placed fourth in both the 4x50 free relay (Kate Meyers-Labenz ’24, Simany Lee ’24, Jayla Covington, Julia Murphy ’24) and the 4x100 free relay (Lee, Higgo, Sabrina Lyn ’23, Meyers-Labenz). Bolles placed ninth in both the 4x50 medley relay (Higgo, Gracie Lanning ’25, Ella Chan ’25, Meyers-Labenz) and the 4x100 medley relay (Higgo, Lyn, Chan, Lee). Individual highlights included Higgo placing eighth in the 100 back with a team record preliminary swim in the event. 

The Bolles men earned a decisive 66-point victory over some of the top programs in the country, led by two individual champion performances – Carter Lancaster ’24 in the 400 IM and Will Heck ’23 in the 100 breasts. Both swimmers set team records in events during the meet – Lancaster in the 200 IM and 400 IM (erasing a 32-year-old record by Olympic medalist Greg Burgess ’90) and Heck lowering his own record in the 200 breasts. 

Additional individual team records and scoring swims included:

• Kayden Lancaster ’23 - 17-18 age group team record, 500 Free
• Wyatt Porch ’25 - 15-16 age group team records, 100 breast/200 breast
• Dillon Brigman ’26 - 13-14 age group team records, 1000 free/1650 free

Bolles placed fourth in the 4x100 medley relay (Landon Kyser ’24, Porch, Carter Lancaster, Andy Kravchenko ’25), breaking the 15-16 National Age Group record by almost three seconds. In the 4x50 medley relay, 4x100 medley relay and 4x50 free relay, both the A & B Bolles teams scored in the top eight. The 4x200 free A relay finished fourth and the 4x100 free relay narrowly missed the win with a second-place finish. Bolles displayed its depth by not only being one of the few programs able to field two relay teams, but also score with both. 

• 4x50 medley relay: A - Carter Lancaster, Heck, Aidan Paro ’23, Seth Tolentino ’24 (3rd), B - Kyser, Porch, Dowl Bowen ’23, Kravchenko (8th)  
• 4x100 medley relay: B - Tolentino, Heck, Paro, Kayden Lancaster (7th) 
• 4x50 free relay: A - Tolentino, Kravchenko, Carter Lancaster, Lachlan Andrew ‘23 (3rd), B - Barrie Snyder, Anthony Whittall ’24, Kayden Lancaster, Mehdi El Aoufir (8th)  
• 4x100 free relay: A - Tolentino, Kravchenko, Carter Lancaster, Kayden Lancaster (2nd)
• 4x200 free relay: A - Kyser, Tolentino, El Aoufir, Kayden Lancaster (4th)  

Original source can be found here.