Central Catholic High School

MORGANTOWN – When the West Virginia State swimming championship opens Thursday, the pool inside Mylan Park will have a strong tint of maroon in the water. That stems from Central Catholic High School being represented by its entire swimming team across the 10-event meet, which will commence at 9 a.m. and wrap up Friday evening. Competing in Division II in the first year that the SSAC has separated swimming into two classifications, the Maroon Knights’ delegation will take part in 17 events. Leading the way is junior Alex Mihalovich, who is the top seed in both the 200 and 500 freestyles. He touched the wall in 1:53.53 in the regional, which is tops in the field by nine seconds. In the longer race, Mihalovich owns the top mark of 5:07.35, which is an astounding 23 seconds faster than the second seed. Senior Jacob Perry will join Mihalovich in both the 200 and 500 free. He’s seeded eighth in both events. Freshman Josh Perry is entered in the 100 breaststroke. Sophomore Dawson Huggins will compete in the 100 freestyle. The Knights foursome of Perry, Perry, Huggins and Mihalovich are seeded third in the 400 free relay with a time of 4:07.51. The Knights’ girls, who won the OVAC title for the first time in school history last month, have a busy schedule ahead. The quartet of Olivia Blatt, Maddie Kirchner, Caleigh Gamble and Kaila Blatt get things started Thursday morning when they swim in the prelims of the 200 medley relay as the 10th seed. Sophomore Gracee Humpe and Gamble will be in the 200 freestyle as the sixth and ninth seeds, respectively. Humpe is the sixth seed in the 100 backstroke, while Gamble is entered in the 500 free as the ninth seed. Freshman Sarah Manning finds herself in the 200 individual medley as the fourth seed. She is also in the 100 free and seeded third with a 59.61. Two Knights – Ally Jefferson and Kirchner – are in the 50 freestyle as the fourth and 10th seeds, respectively. Jefferson will also compete in the 100 freestyle as the eighth seed at 1:03.14. Junior Ellie Manning begins her state meet in the 100 fly as the third seed with a clocking of 1:08.61. She will also compete in the 500 free as the fifth seed. The 200 and 400 free relay teams of Manning, Humpe, Jefferson and Manning find themselves in the second spot of both events after regional qualifying thanks to times of 1:50.97 and 4:11.23 Kirchner and Olivia Blatt qualified for the 100 breaststroke.