Wheeling Park’s Abby Turner swims her way to a victory in the 100 freestyle at the OVAC Bill Brubaker Swimming Championships Saturday at Brooke High School. The sophomore also won gold in the 50 freestyle on Saturday. Photo by Kyle Lutz

WELLSBURG — Right when the first horned sounded, it was clear the Wheeling Park and St. Clairsville swimming teams were on a mission.

The Patriots and Red Devils accomplished that mission in dominating fashion as both the Wheeling Park boys’ and girls’ teams claimed the 5A title, while St. Clairsville hoisted the 1A-4A trophies at the OVAC Bill Brubaker Swimming Championships Saturday at Brooke High School.

This is the fourth straight conference title for the Wheeling Park girls and second straight for the boys.

The Brooke girls were runner-ups in the big school while Linsly came in second in the small school.

On the boys side, Parkersburg South got second in 5A and Linsly secured runner-up honors in 1A-4A.

“I think we had some phenomenal times on both the girls and boys team,” Wheeling Park coach Pat Durkin said. “We had some PRs and a couple of school records fell. Everybody just stepped up. We knew what we needed to do and the boys scored 503 points. That’s a lot of points to score in a meet, so we scored all the way down. I’m really happy with them.”

For the Red Devils, it was the second straight year they hoisted the hardware. The day could not have started any better for the girls’ team.

In the first event, Olivia Moyer, Casadie DiBetta, Kylie McKeegan and Maggie Marody swam to a victory in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:53.20.

The time broke every record on paper including the open, pool and conference.

“It set a good tone for the day for the girls and then the boys came back in the medley relay and actually outdid themselves,” St. Clairsville coach Ernie Banks said. “Both boys and girls medley, the girls winning was just absolutely starting out the day wonderful.”

That set the tone for St. Clairsville as it compiled a total of five more gold medals on the day, including another OVAC record.

DiBetta, a freshman, touched the wall first in the 100 breaststroke, clocking in at 1:05.77.

“It was really fun and it was nice doing it with all the support on the team,” DiBetta said about breaking the record. “I was really nervous before, it was really fun doing it and when I looked up, it was a nice feeling.”

DiBetta also won the 200 IM (2:15.14) and was also on the first leg of the winning 400 freestyle relay team with Moyer, Marody and Brenna Planey (3:51.68).

“She did. She came out. The girl has been sick all week and soldiering through,” Banks said about DiBetta. “She’s got some pretty hard cheerleading practices going on also. She came in tired, came in sick and was still able to do what she did. I’m real proud of her.”

Another impressive feat that was accomplished was by Wheeling Park’s Sarah Heilman in the 100 butterfly. While she didn’t set a record, she did complete the sweep in the event, winning it for the fourth time in as many tries when she touched the pad in 1:00.10.

“I’m really happy about that,” Heilman said. “I was so nervous this whole week about the 100 fly because I wasn’t seeded to win it this year and I really wanted to be a four-time champion in it. So, I was just really happy about it.”

Heilman secured another individual gold medal in the 100 backstroke as she clocked in at 1:00.10.

She was also on the winning 200 freestyle relay team with Melina McCabe, Jenna Bopp and Abby Turner (1:46.53).

“Sarah has been an outstanding swimmer for the last four years,” Durkin said. “She’s a competitor. When she gets on the blocks, she’s going to win. You can tell she wants to win.”

Turner also won two individual events for the Patriots in the 50 freestyle (24.92) and 100 freestyle (54.43).

On the boys side for Wheeling Park, Charles Schellhase claimed the lone individual victory that came down to the final stretch.

Seeded No. 3 in the final heat of the 200 IM, his qualifying time was about eight seconds behind the top seed. However, Schellhase let his work do all the talking as he edged out University’s Frank McCutchan by a fingernail as he clocked in at 2:09.24 compared to McCutchan’s 2:09.33.

“Chuckie had an outstanding meet. He dropped time in both individual events,” Durkin said. “He stepped up and that just gives me a lot of hope and faith in him in the next couple of weeks.”

A similar incident occurred during the 200 freestyle relay as Wheeling Park foursome of Schellhase, Alexander Dague, Manaved Kuttan and Caleb Lucas won the gold on the final stretch in 1:37.23.

Marody also claimed two individual titles for St. Clairsville in the 200 freestyle (2:02.63) and 500 freestyle (5:20.77).

“It’s a good streak to have,” Banks said about winning two conference championships in a row. “These kids train hard. They work hard and I hope they enjoy this. I hope they enjoy this moment. Team-wise, we did great, but individual-wise, each and every one of these kids that swam (Saturday), all of them had a tremendous swim.”

Martins Ferry’s Jarrett Bolinger claimed two gold medals.

The junior first won the 100 freestyle in a time of 49.32. He followed that up with a victory in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.43).