On Jan. 28, State High’s swimming and diving team competed against rival Cumberland Valley at the State High Natatorium. The girls team continued an undefeated season, adding another win to an undefeated 9-0 record. The boys team fell with a score of 113-73.
“CV [Cumberland Valley] is definitely one of our biggest competitors, and it’s always fun to have a meet with big races and good competition, so it’ll be interesting to see how it turns out,” senior captain Sam Huggins said.
The focus of the meet wasn’t only to beat Cumberland Valley, but to celebrate the team’s ten seniors, many of whom broke records on their celebration night.
The competition kicked off with the 200 Medley Relay, 200 IM, and 200 and 50-meter Freestyle events. Senior captain Madison Watschke competed in the Medley Relay, 200 IM, 100 Breaststroke and 400 Freestyle Relay, breaking the pool record in the 200 IM with a time of 2:05.52. “I’ve had my eye on it for a while, and I hadn’t swam it in a while too, so it was really fun to get back to swimming it and do it in that fashion,” Watschke said.
Huggins broke the pool record for the men’s 500 Freestyle by six seconds with a time of 4:28.81. Junior Molly Workman also broke the women’s school record for 500 Freestyle with a time of 4:59.41.
Prior to the actual events, senior members walked through a line of cheering teammates and were given a congratulatory recap of the past four years over the loudspeaker. They made their way to the end of the pool deck and embraced coaches before standing with their parents. Emotions were high as the class of 2025 began what would be their last home meet at State High.
“It’s definitely very bittersweet,” Watschke said. “At times I’m super excited, then other times I feel like I’m about to cry, because it’s just very emotional. I mean, it’s sad because you grow up with these people…but it’s sad in a good way because I have a lot of gratitude to the team.”
Ben Locke, the father of senior Anya Locke, reflected on the past years of watching his daughter swim. “Over the years, you see them get better and better, and faster and faster. You see the friendships develop around swimming,” Locke said. “And all the days they want to quit because it’s really hard, or they’re sick, or they get injured, and they choose to keep going; so at the end of four years, it just feels like a huge accomplishment to persistence.”

The hard work paid off for the seniors, growing lifelong friendships and strengthening their minds and bodies. Huggins will continue to swim at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Watschke at Miami University.
Fellow senior Chris Hill placed first in the mens diving event at the meet as well. After the diving competition, swimmers competed in the 100 Butterfly, 100 and 500-meter Freestyle, 200 Freestyle Relay, 100 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke and 400 Freestyle Relay events.
“It’s gonna be [a tough meet] to compete…we’ve got a really strong diving contingent, so they’re keeping us it in it, so it’ll hopefully come down to the last relay [400 Freestyle], which is a strong one for us,” swimming head coach Aaron Workman said.
State High brought home gold in both the mens and womens 400 Freestyle Relay.
Workman also reflected on the season so far, calling it “very good.”
“There’s a smaller senior class than normal, but I think we’ve brought in a lot of really good underclassmen…and they put in a lot of really good hard work,” Workman said. “On the boy’s side, small team, but a lot of really good young guys. We’ve just been crushed with injuries and having people out sick, so we’re finding ways to put a good ending together.”
Huggins looked to the future for the team’s goals. “I think going to our conference meet, Mid-Penns, we want to come out with a win in that, and then another win in Districts, because we’ve won the past lot of years and want to keep a streak going,” Huggins said.
With Mid Penns coming up next week, the team will face Cumberland Valley again. The diving team competes on Feb. 5, and the swimmers on Feb. 7 and 8.