BRANDON — The Starkville High School swimming team opened its season Saturday with several strong finishes at the Brandon Relays.
Due to a computer scoring glitch, no official team finishes were available. However, Starkville coach Angela Hobart believes her squad was in a position to finish second in the boys and girls competition.
“We really had a good day,” Hobart said. “For the first meet, I was very pleased. We had lots of personal best times. On the girls side, St. Andrew”s was the only team to have a better day. Since they are not in our classification, we won”t be facing them in the postseason.”
Cheng Ye and Laken Vickers took first in the 100-meter breaststroke. David McKell placed second in the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke. Andy Bond finished second in the 100m free and 50 free. Mark Anne Hobart had a third-place mark in the 100 butterfly. Adam Bond placed third in the 100m back.
Perhaps the highlight of the day took place in the boys 400 free relay, where the team of David Yan, McKee, Ye, and Andy Bond placed first. Bond swam the last leg. He entered the pool in third place, but posted a 50.5-second split time to pull the team to victory.
“It was the first time in several years we won that relay race,” coach Hobart said. “It was an incredible effort from Andy. To swim the fourth leg and overtake two swimmers was quite a feat. It was a great win.”
The 400 free relay team of Vickers, Mark Anne Hobart, Kristen Lacy, and Adina Harri placed second on the girls side.
Starkville will return to action Sept. 8 at Tupelo. The Yellow Jackets will play host the Starkville Invitational at the Sanderson Center on the Mississippi State University campus two days later.
Volleyball
n Starkville advances at Volleyfest: At Tupelo, the Starkville High School volleyball team finished 3-1 in pool play to take second place in its group at the Tupelo VolleyFest.
The Yellow Jackets advanced to the quarterfinals of the tournament where it lost to St. Joe”s 25-8, 25-18 to move to 10-6 on the season.
In pool play, Starkville earned wins against Ripley (25-19, 25-27) and Northwest Rankin (19-25, 25-13) on point differential. It lost to Tupelo 25-9, 25-15 and it defeated Aberdeen 25-18, 25-9.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Caldeonia finished 2-2 with victories against Columbus (25-6, 25-21) and Corinth (25-19, 23-25, split but won by margin of victory).
For the Lady Confederates, Morgan Smith had eight aces, one kill and, 21 assists, Stevi Carter had an ace, nine kills, and a pair of blocks, Sarah Freeman added three aces, nine kills, and a block, Cara Hopper had six kills and seven aces, while Ashley Langford added eight aces.
Starkville was the lone local team to advance to the six-team championship bracket. Tupelo improved to 19-0 by beating Lake Comorant in the championship match.
Starkville will play host to Ackerman at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Soccer
n Immanuel Christian wins two: The Lady Rams improved to 4-0 thanks to 2-1 and 3-1 victories against Canton Academy on Saturday.
In the first game, Courtney Hall and Missy Swain scored goals. In the second game, which went to overtime, Missy Swain scored two goals, including one in OT, while Michelle Swain also had a goal in OT.
Taylor Kidder was goalkeeper in both matches. She had six saves in the first game and eight in the second.
Immanuel Christian coach Ray Campbell praised the play of Tori Fitzgerald, Meghan Cooper, Rachel Strickland, and Justine Bell.
Immanuel Christian will play Tuesday at Bayou Academy.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 36 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.