South Iredell’s boys swimming team jumped two spots in their ranking among the county’s swimming programs. The Vikings finished third behind Saturday behind Lake Norman and West Iredell. The second-place Warriors edged the Vikings by only 13 points.
In 2011, South Iredell finished in fifth place, only 13 points ahead of last-place Mooresville, in head coach Laureen Pozega’s second year with the program.
“The first two years, we had 24 kids, and I can now say we have 40 kids, and all of them came in knowing how to swim,” Pozega said. “So that is a big plus. What they didn’t know, they want to know how to get better for themselves and the team.”
Two of those newcomers pushing the Vikings up Iredell County’s totem pole are Edmund and Edward Jia. Edward Jia finished third in the 100-meter butterfly and 100 backstroke. The Jia boys, sophomores who swam last year at Lake Norman, teamed with Reid Weigleb and Avery Wilson to finish second in the boys 200 medley relay.
“In my three years, this is the first year we have a good boys relay,” Pozega said.
Three members of the relay team – Avery Wilson and Edward and Edmund Jia – swim for SwimMAC, a club team in Mecklenburg County while Weigleb does not swim for a club. That still forces him to step up his game.
“It helps boost (Reid) up, because he knows he has to do as well as they do,” Pozega said. “The Eds have helped tremendously.
“…Every meet they do awesome. Without them, our boys would not do as well as they are.”
Tough match coming to South
South Iredell is at home Friday against, arguably, the top wrestling team in the conference and one of the top teams in the state. The Vikings host the Newton-Conover Red Devils on Friday. It will be both teams’ second conference match of the year.
“Friday is going to be very, very tough,” head coach Bill Mayhew said. “You’re looking at a team that is as good as any team in the state of North Carolina.
“We’re still mostly sophomore and freshman dominated with a few juniors and seniors. From the time we started in Novemeber, we’ve gotten a lot better. We’re feeling good about where we are now.”
South Iredell went into its match Tuesday with a 14-6 overall record after earning seven straight victories. Newton-Conover is ranked No. 2 in the most-recent 2A coaches poll on Retro Rankings.
The Red Devils had more than twice the number of victories as the Vikings going into the teams’ conference matches on Tuesday. South Iredell was at Bandys, and Newton-Conover faced Draughn. The final scores of either match were not available at press time.
Gabriel faced former team Tuesday
Bradley Gabriel squared off with his former team Tuesday when Bandys rolled into town.
Gabriel is helping the Vikings boys basketball team this year. He was head girls basketball coach at South Iredell in 2005-06 when it went 18-9 and won the Southern Piedmont 1A/2A title.
Gabriel, an eighth-grade language arts teacher at Mill Creek Middle School in Catawba County, was the boys basketball head coach at Bandys for four seasons from 2007-11. The Trojans went 15-12 in 2009-10 for their only winning season in the past 10 years. Bandys followed that going 0-25 in Gabriel’s final season as Bandys boys basketball coach.
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