Northwood’s swim team traveled to Greensboro to compete against 19 other teams at the 3A Central North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) Regional Swim Championships on Friday, Feb. 2. The women’s team placed second overall and the men’s placed tenth overall in the competition.
Several Northwood swimmers won individual events, including senior Wiley Sikes, who placed first in the men’s 200 yard individual medley. He spoke on how Northwood’s team prepared for the regionals.
“Coach Reed had us do some visualization and… [look] at some key technical pieces to the strokes,” Sikes said.
Sikes has been a swimmer for club teams before, but this is the first year he has competed for his school.
“I’ve been to big meets, but the atmosphere at regionals was really a unique one,” Sikes said.
Northwood’s women also topped the podium in two of the 24 total races. Sophomore Abby Emrich placed first in the 200 yard freestyle and the 400 yard freestyle relay, alongside sophomore Holly Thesing, senior Lauren Emrich and senior Bianca Perez. Perez is the captain of the women this season. For her, this year’s regionals are special.
“Attending regionals as a senior was bittersweet and an enjoyable experience,” Perez said. “Winning a race feels exciting and comforting because it shows that all my hard work has paid off.”
Perez hopes that the swim team gets more recognition at Northwood for their accomplishments this season. They added to these accomplishments on Saturday, Feb. 11, when they represented Northwood at the NCHSAA 3A State Swimming Championships in Cary. Other Northwood swimmers who qualified for states included sophomore Christian Pumalpa, sophomore Jesse Sikes, junior Morgan Turner, junior Maya Sipper and senior Jacob Garrett.
Abby Emrich placed first in the women’s 200 yard freestyle and was part of the relay team with Bianca Perez, Holly Thesing and Lauren Emrich which placed third in the 400 yard freestyle relay. These wins propelled the women to fifth overall out of the 41 total teams that competed. For the men, Wiley Sikes finished fourth in the men’s 200 yard individual medley.