Swim and Dive

To swim or not to swim? In the sub-freezing weather of the past week and a half, that would have been the question on any other team’s mind, but for FCHS’s Swim and Dive Team, not competing wasn’t even a consideration. In the end, their dedication to practice and their insistence to compete paid off.

Over the course of Jan. 5-6, the Swim and Dive team competed in their District meet, a competition which was held at UVA and included seven teams. The meet may have been tough going—though, thankfully, indoors—but it was a challenge well-faced by Flucos, who came away from it with two respectable rankings: fifth out of seven for the boys, and fourth out of seven for the girls, though they also came out of the meet with a relay team which placed in the top five. A few days prior, the Dive team had also participated in the Ben Hair Meet, a competition that was created to honor the life of a superb swimmer who died in 2009.

Moving ahead, the teams prepared for a meet in Fork Union, one which swimmer Bryant Atkins described as the “big meet.” “Since it’s a meet against Fork Union and other private schools and other local schools, we’ll [probably] place in the top five,” Atkins said prior to the meet, “[so] we’re pretty confident about it.”

That meet, on Jan. 10, was split into boys and girls categories, and then further into multiple dual-meets. The girls were the ultimate winners of their category, having gone “undefeated” throughout the course of the meet, and the boys came in second overall, having beaten everyone but FUMA—more than meeting Atkins’ prediction. Both teams compete again on Jan. 13 and 17 at Albemarle and Woodberry respectively.

Wrestling

Though their week wasn’t as full as the Swim team’s, the FCHS Wrestling team is not to be overlooked. They spent the afternoon on Jan. 7, as well as all day on Jan 10, proving that at competitions. “We did hard practices on Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 5 and 6), and had three matches on Monday night,” said senior wrestler Eric Wentz. “We wrestled some great competition and learned from our mistakes,” he said. Wentz deigned to comment on their placing, instead saying that it was a team meet.

The meet against Covington was a different sort of monster, though—one that they could not prepare for. “We didn’t know who was going to be there,” Wentz said, “not that it mattered– we went in planning on trying our hardest.” FCHS had four wrestlers place that meet: Isa Mayo-Pitts took first, Dalton Wensel took second, and Ian Dylan and Eric Wentz placed third. “We wrestled better than we did on Wednesday,” Wentz said. “A few of us placed, but everyone wrestled hard, everyone wrestled well, and everyone got better,” he added. Wrestling competes again on Jan. 16 and 17 for their District tournament.

Boys’ Basketball

On Jan. 6, the Fluvanna County High School boys’ basketball team took on the Charlottesville Black Nights. This was a highly anticipated game as both teams are top teams in the area. The Flucos started off the game strong and through three quarters the game was a stalemate, but it was the Black Knights who surged through in the end to a 80-68 victory.

Junior guard Jason Lee shared some of his thoughts on the game, “We started off playing as a team, but didn’t finish the game as one, I believe if we could have slowed down the tempo of our offense and ran the offense how it was supposed to be run, our team could have pulled through in the end to win,” he said. Senior Forward Nafeese Simms agreed. “Our teamwork slowed down as the game went on, and if we could have put in the easy, open shots, it could have been us who were victorious,” he said.

On Friday, Jan. 9, the Flucos took on Waynesboro High School, and the team was able to bounce back and get a win. Next, the Flucos travel to Louisa on Jan. 13, then take on Orange at home on Jan. 16.

Girls’ Basketball

The Lady Flucos’ matched up against the Lady Knights of Charlottesville High School on Jan. 6 at Charlottesville. The game was fought hard by both teams, but CHS went on to take the victory 56-46. “I believe we played well, but we just need to get back and work at getting better, and go beat them next time,” said junior Kate Stutz following the tough loss. Doing its best to regroup after that loss, the Lady Flucos travelled to Waynesboro on Jan. 9. to take on the Little Giants. This game was also intense and tight, but they were beaten by Waynesboro 45-35. This week the Lady Flucos take on Louisa on Jan 13, at home, and Albemarle on Jan. 20, at Albemarle.

Indoor Track

Cross Country and Track and Field have always been two of the most, if not the most, successful sports FCHS has, and this season appears to be living up to that trend. On Jan. 9, the girls’ team had over ten girls place in the top five in a variety of different events, and two of them pushed close to breaking school records. The full list of qualifiers and their events is as follows:

4X800 meter relay: 5^th place – Camryn Frederick, Haley Kennedy, Bridget Bossong and Sarah Spitler

300 meter dash: Matasha Martin – 1^st place

Pole vaulting: Erin Blackburn – 1^st place; Tiffani Shaheen 3^rd

3200 meter race: Kristen Cabrera – 1^st place; Haley Kennedy 2^nd; Jackie Rodriguez 3^rd

4×400 meter relay: Devon Burger, Hayley Kline, LaMaya Lacy and Saige Haney – 2^nd place

1600 meter race: Saige Haney- 4^th place; Devon Burger 5^th

55 meter dash: Matasha Martin – 5th place

High jump: Matasha Martin – 4th place

1000 meter race: Hayley Kline – 4^th place

500 meter race: Kristen Cabrera – 3^rd place

While a variety of runners qualified for Regionals and Conference, stand-outs include Erin Blackburn and Tiffani Shaheen, who also qualified for States in pole vault. The team’s next meet is Jan. 17 against Fred Hardy.