Bishop England girls’ swim team repeats as state champs!

Bishop England High School’s athletic bus was running 30 minutes late. With a scheduled trip to the High School League’s Class AAA State Swimming Championships on the itinerary, coach Rose Van Metre had reason to be concerned on Friday the 13th.

 

But sophomore sensation Ellie Chalupsky was right on time and the first swimmer to touch the wall first in four events as Bishop England repeated as girls’ state champs with a 418-359.5 victory over Gray Collegiate at the University of South Carolina’s natatorium. St. Joseph claimed third with 334 points.

 

On Oct. 16, the Class AAA boys’ championships were held and the Bishop boys fared extremely well as junior Owen Fritts and senior Justin Hafner combined for five gold medals and three silver.

 

However, the Bishops didn’t have the depth and finished in third place. St. Joseph’s took home the biggest trophy with a 406.5-397 decision over Greer Middle College. The Bishops finished third with 317. Philip Simmons finished in 20th place of the boys’ meet with 26 points.

 

Chalupsky proved to be a great swimmer against older competition. She won the 100-yard butterfly in 57.04 seconds, and claimed gold in the 100 backstroke with a clocking of 58.26.

 

Chalupsky was a member of the gold-medal winning 200- and 400-yard relays. She teamed up with Mia Devito, Zoe DeWitt and Mackenzie LeVeen to win the 200 free relay in 1:37.84. Chalupsky, Devito, DeWitt and freshman Carley Foust won gold in the 400 free relay in 3:33.65.

 

Van Metre praised Chalupsky for another clutch performance.

 

“Ellie is a phenomenal athlete. She’s phenomenal,” Van Metre said. “She’s really good in the water, and she’s a determined young lady. She gets nervous and then goes out and swims her heart out.”

 

While Chalupsky has two more years to gather gold and championships, the senior swimmer Hafner grabbed his final gold of a brilliant career.

 

Hafner won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:44.05, and teamed up for gold with Carlisle Stanley, Owen Fritts and Connor Good with a time of 1:27.95 in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

 

Hafner finished second to teammate Fritts in the 100-yard freestyle and was on the silver medal winning 400-yard freestyle relay team. Other members included Jude Nicksic, Good and Fritts.

 

Fritts brought his medal count to three gold and one silver as he also won the 50-yard freestyle with a 20.93 clocking.

 

Hafner wasn’t able to duplicate last year’s success of four gold medals, but he went out as a winner. He concluded four years of swimming at BE with eight gold medals – three individual and five relay.

 

“He’s just a tremendous student-athlete,” Van Metre said of Hafner. “He’s a great leader who leads by example. He works hard. Because of that, the kids around him work hard as well. He’s a great role model.”

 

Fritts will be a leader and role model net season. He also leads by example. He’s a very technical swimmer who knows how to tweak it to perfection. He’s great off the wall and a great starter. That hard work has paid off for him,” Van Metre added.