As the 2024-2025 RCHS winter sports seasons come to an end, all teams have performed in their respective sports. The winter sports include: wrestling, swimming, indoor track, basketball, academic team, and forensics.
Boys varsity basketball finished with a record of one win and 22 losses, their season ended with senior night against William Monroe on Friday, Feb. 14. There were many promising moments throughout the season as well, and there are bright hopes for the future of the team.
Senior star guard Luke Eversole gives insight on how the season went.
“At the start of the season we had hopes to go in strong and come out with a decent record, obviously it didn’t go as planned, but these are my brothers and we grew closer together. Now we are playing better than ever in preparation for when we move districts next year,” said Eversole.
While their record isn’t what they hoped for, they improved through the season, and worked out the kinks in their game.
Meanwhile, girls basketball had an imposing season finishing with a record of 11 wins and 12 losses. In the conference, they concluded with three wins and six losses. This performance earned them a spot in the regional tournament where they played Alleghany High School. Unfortunately, with a final score of 48 to 45, Alleghany came out on top.
Sophomore center Ruby Goodhart, recently called to the second team valley district, speaks on some of the goals and accomplishments from their season.
“One of our main goals as a team at the beginning of the season was to take advantage of everyone’s individual skills and bring them together to work as a team and to control the pace of the game. Comparing last year, where we only won two games, to this year where we won 12, I think we were able to accomplish these goals and slow the game down,” said Goodhart.
Despite the loss against Alleghany, the team showed massive improvement and had an improved season overall.
Boys and girls wrestling had a successful season as well, with multiple wrestlers making it to the Virginia state tournament; Davis Welsh, Wyatt Eisenbrown, Marcus Nelson, Gab e Wade, Hudson Ryan,Tasha Shorter, and Mia Marando.
“I’d say our goals were to have some people make it to states and place at states, try to win districts, and beat Turner Ashby High School. We had five boys make it to states and two girls, we did pretty well this season and ended up placing 2nd as a team in districts,” said Welsh.
In the state tournament, Mia Marando, a senior, placed 6th and Tasha Shorter,a freshman did not place but performed well in the season with a record of 12-12.
Indoor track was filled with many strong individual performances throughout the season. Track is an individual sport, but the team sends people to both states, and regionals in their respective events. At the time of publication, Freshman Ariana Mitchell is competing in states. Celia Jones, a runner, and regional placer gave insight on the season.
“Our team’s goal was just to get as many people into regionals as possible. We had someone land a spot in states during our first meet and I just placed for regionals as well,” said Jones.
Another fairly individual sport, swimming also performed in their respective events. This season, they sent many people to regionals, and states as well. A regional winner in his respective event, Spencer Pfaff shows light to how the season is playing out.
“Our season has gone pretty well so far and we have a promising freshman class on the team this year. One of our goals was for our relay team to go to states again, and with districts being canceled, we’re closer to our goal,” said Pfaff.
The academic team was able to win the state tournament, defeating maggie walker in the first round of the tournament. A coach of the academic team gives insight on their long term goals of the season, “The goal at the start of the season was to go back to the states again. Last year, we placed 2nd in states, and we just won regionals, so we punched our ticket to states and our plan is playing out. The matchups have already been released, and our first matchup is Maggie L. Walker, who we lost to last year,” said McGrath
Although Forensics is mostly an individual sport, the team performed well in the season. Liam Stillwell, a junior, and participant gives insight on how the team wanted the season to go,“I would say that Forensics is a more individual sport, but but as a team our goals was to just do well overall, and we achieved that.” said Stillwell Avery Diette, and Kelly Fu also placed for states, by getting 3rd in Humorous Duo Interpretation at the Class 3CD super regional tournament at Turner Ashby High School and Qualifies for the State Tournament at Salem High School on March 29.
