Wheeling Central, Linsly, John Marshall, Barnesville Earn OVAC Swimming Crowns | Information, Sports activities, Jobs

picture by: Nick Henthorn

Barnesville’s Liv McCrate participates within the 100-yard breaststroke on Saturday throughout the closing day of the 2026 OVAC Swimming Championships. McCrate set new faculty information within the 200-meter particular person medley (2:18.44) and within the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.66).

WELLSBURG — After two days of competitors, the goldrush in Wellsburg is over, and native swimming outfits did fairly nicely for themselves on the opposite facet.

The 2026 OVAC Swimming Championships concluded Saturday inside Brooke High School, with Barnesville, Linsly, John Marshall and Wheeling Central all claiming first-place finishes of their respective convention courses, and with quite a few faculty information in tow.

GIRLS

The Linsly Cadets had been the general level leaders, and ran away with the 4A gold with 170 staff factors, 64 greater than second-place St. Clairsville.

“I think the kids came ready to swim hard,” Linsly head coach Jim Merinar mentioned. “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 received the Class 1A-3A competitors with 124 staff factors. Barnesville completed in second with 91 factors.

“They just came together as a team, as a family,” Wheeling Central head coach Jeani Humpe mentioned of her groups. “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 ladies battled with Morgantown in 5A, with the Monarchs grabbing maintain of first place with 111 staff factors to Morgantown’s 108. The Monarchs repeated after additionally successful the ladies 5A crown in 2025.

“I’m super proud of them,” John Marshall head coach Timmi Snider mentioned of her groups. “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 end within the Class 1A-3A competitors, scoring 102 staff factors towards the Crusaders’ 96.

“I am very proud of every single one of my swimmers,” Barnesville head coach Danielle Anderson mentioned. “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 staff factors general, however 4A champion Beaver Local was the general point-leader, with 134.5 towards Linsly’s 121.

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