Individual success is nothing new for Sophia Stinnett.

Going into Saturday, she had already won three individual championships at the Central Conference Championships, starting with the 200 yard freestyle in her freshman year.

This year, Stinnett and fellow senior Quinn McCrimmon added a team conference title to their lengthy list of achievements.

Stinnett won two individual gold medals as the Cedar Ridge women’s swimming team won the Central Conference championship at the Orange County Sportsplex on Saturday afternoon. For the second year in a row, Stinnett won the 500 yard freestyle and also captured the 100 yard backstroke, where she is the defending 3A Central Regional champion.

McCrimmon won her second individual conference championship in the 200 yard freestyle during the tightest race of the day. McCrimmon beat Western Alamance’s Elizabeth Merlette by .22 of a second, finishing at 2:08.45. Last year, McCrimmon won the 100 yard butterfly.

Cedar Ridge won the women’s team championship with 382 points. Orange, the two-time defending conference champions, finished second at 361 points. Western Alamance came in third with 310 points.

“It’s a little bit of a story arc,” McCrimmon said. “We’ve always been trying to beat Orange for some reason and we finally did. It was such a shocker that we won but I’m really proud of everyone for how hard we’ve worked this season.”

In addition to swimming in the morning with her teammates, McCrimmon usually returns to the pool for a two-hour workout after a full day of school.

The Red Wolves likely would have likely earned more points, but the event was in limbo because of Tuesday night’s snow cancelling school on Wednesday and Thursday. With the Mid-State Conference Championships booked for the SportsPlex on Friday night, the only other time the Central title meet could fit in was Saturday.

It led to twelve Cedar Ridge swimmers missing the event.

“I’m really proud of the ones that came,” said Cedar Ridge swimming coach Amanda Jones. “They had a really great meet today.”

Stinnett captured two Central Regional championships last year at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. She came in the 3A State Championships in the 100 yard backstroke, but had never won a team conference championship until Saturday.

“It’s been really great having them as seniors,” Jones said. “They are really able to do well behind the blocks on relays. I’m really proud of them and I’m honored to see how far they’ve come since they were freshman.”

In December, Stinnett formally signed to swim at Le Moyne College in DeWitt, New York.

It wasn’t just the end of the Central Conference season for Stinnett and McCrimmon, but it was also their final meet inside the Orange County SportsPlex. Stinnett has swam in the SportsPlex pool since she was six years old. She practices at the SportsPlex with her teammates, as well as competitors from Orange, every weekday morning at 6AM.

“It’s definitely bittersweet knowing this is the end of my career here,” Stinnett said. “It’s really exciting because we had never won a conference championship before at Cedar Ridge.” Zoe

Orange junior Piper White repeated as champion of the 50 and 100 yard freestyles. White, who had won three state championships in relay events over the past two years,  won the 50 at 26.51 seconds, beating out Walter Williams Sophia Shideler. Cedar Ridge freshman Eden Pollard finished third.

White captured the 100 yard freestyle at 59.63 seconds, again beating out Shideler. Cedar Ridge junior Hala Zafar came in third at 1:02.87.

White, Ainsley Rasinske, Zoe Jones and freshman Addison Moore won two relay championships. They took the 200 yard medley at 2:02.68. Cedar Ridge’s team of Stinnett, McCrimmon, Zafar and Natalie Kunz finished 2nd at 2:05.38.

White, Rasinske, Jones and Moore also claimed the 400 yard freestyle relay at 4:09.98. McCrimmon, Kunz, Zafar and Stinnett got another runner-up finish (4:16.79).

Orange freshman Reilly Jermyn won the 100 yard breastroke. Jermyn, who was the top runner for Orange’s women’s cross country team last fall, earned her first conference title at 1:18.74, well ahead of Ale Gonzalez Palacios of Williams (1:23.94).

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