photo by: Nick Henthorn

Barnesville’s Liv McCrate participates in the 100-yard breaststroke on Saturday during the final day of the 2026 OVAC Swimming Championships. McCrate set new school records in the 200-meter individual medley (2:18.44) and in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.66).

WELLSBURG — After two days of competition, the goldrush in Wellsburg is over, and local swimming outfits did quite well for themselves on the other side.

The 2026 OVAC Swimming Championships concluded Saturday inside Brooke High School, with Barnesville, Linsly, John Marshall and Wheeling Central all claiming first-place finishes in their respective conference classes, and with numerous school records in tow.

GIRLS

The Linsly Cadets were the overall point leaders, and ran away with the 4A gold with 170 team points, 64 more than second-place St. Clairsville.

“I think the kids came ready to swim hard,” Linsly head coach Jim Merinar said. “They’ve practiced hard and they put together a wonderful two days. The girls won pretty soundly. The boys ran it to the very end and they were beaten out by a very good Beaver Local team who deserved it entirely. I can’t be happier, you know, kids work hard and they produce something. It makes a coach really happy. A lot of first-places in there.”

Wheeling Central won the Class 1A-3A competition with 124 team points. Barnesville finished in second with 91 points.

“They just came together as a team, as a family,” Wheeling Central head coach Jeani Humpe said of her teams. “And that’s what our tradition is, Central is all about family and togetherness and they performed as a team/family. They really stepped up and did what they needed to do. This is school history; the 22 years I’ve been coaching, this is the first time we’ve ever been OVAC champs.”

John Marshall’s girls battled with Morgantown in 5A, with the Monarchs grabbing hold of first place with 111 team points to Morgantown’s 108. The Monarchs repeated after also winning the girls 5A crown in 2025.

“I’m super proud of them,” John Marshall head coach Timmi Snider said of her teams. “I’d say across the board we had mostly PRs for the season, and my relays were right where we expected them to be. They had their season-best time for the relays. The boys had broken three school records. The girls are right there from last year.”

BOYS

Barnesville jumped Steubenville Catholic, who led after day one, for a gold finish in the Class 1A-3A competition, scoring 102 team points against the Crusaders’ 96.

“I am very proud of every single one of my swimmers,” Barnesville head coach Danielle Anderson said. “It took every single one of my swimmers for us to achieve this– the small school boys winning it and the small school girls getting runner up, every single one of them put in the maximum effort. They had a great attitude and they were tough mentally and physically.”

In 4A, Linsly scored the second-most team points overall, but 4A champion Beaver Local was the overall point-leader, with 134.5 against Linsly’s 121.

Morgantown won the 5A crown, with Wheeling Park coming in second place.