The Raiders and Lady Raiders got off to a overwhelming start in the NAHSSL Sprint Meet held at the Richard Showers Aquatic Center.  The Boys team finished with 59 points and won 9 out of 10 events including all three relays.  Captains Cameron Conners and Kevin Byrne led the way with double individual wins.  Cameron in the 100 IM and 50 Back and Kevin in the 50 and 200 Free.  Hudson Robb won the 100 Free and 7th grader Braxton Conners won the 50 Breastroke.     8th grade Chandler Hinson fininshed 2nd in the 100 IM and 200 Free and was on the winning 200 Medley and 400 Free Relays.  Nathan Moore and Michael Harris each helped a relay to a win and 7th grader Connor McDaris finished 2nd in the 50 Fly and was on all three 2nd place relays.  The Lady Raiders came out firing also winning all 10 events.  Captain Kristyn Wilson won her only individual event the 200 Free and was also a part of the winning 200 Medley and 400 Free relays.  7th grader Sarah Abbott Martinson won both her individual events, the 50 Fly and 50 Back, while helping the 200 Medley relay to the win.  Amelia Conners, Nina Ramachandran, Hutson Chilton, and Lily Teague each won one individual event.  Conners swam on all three winning relays along with sophmore Francesca Burkhardt who placed 2nd in the 50 back.  8th grader Meghna Katta finished 2nd in the 50 Free and was on both 2nd place 200 Medley and 400 Free Relays.  Other 7th grader's Hannah Byers finished 3rd in the 50 Breastroke and was part of both the 200 Free and 400 Free winning relays, while Megan Roberts finished 4th in the 50 Free and Latha Karne finished 5th in the same event and both swam on the 2nd place 200 Free Relay.  The Raiders will be in the pool September 29 in  Florence for a qualifying meet with the host team and Buckhorn High School.  Congrats to all of the Raider swimmers for a great start to the season.

The Raiders continued where they left off with a win over the 6a Buckhorn Bucks Tuesday night.  Double winners were Cameron Conners in the 200 IM and 100 Breastroke and Kevin Byrne in the 50 and 200 Freestyle.  Other winners included Nathan Moore in the 100 Free and 8th grader Chandler Hinson in the 100 Back.  Moore also finished 2nd in the 50 Free and Hinson 2nd in the 200 Free.  7th grader Braxton Conners finished 3rd in both the 200 Free and 100 Breastroke.  Freshman Derek Russell finished 2nd in the 200 IM and 100 Breaststroke.  Conners, Byrne, Hinson, and Russell won both the 200 Medley and 400 Free Relays.  Michael Harris and Connor McDaris had good swims in the 50 and 100 Free and senior Sam Denny swam in his first meet ever and finished 7th in the 50 Free.  Harris, McDaris, B. Conners, and Moore finished 2nd in the 200 Free Relay.  The Lady Raiders also continued to show much improvement without captain Kristyn Wilson.  Amelia Conners won both the 50 and 100 Free just out touching 7th grader Sarah Abbott Martinson by .01 in the 50.  Martinson also won the 100 Backstroke while Nina Ramachandran won the 100 Breastroke and Lily Teague won the 200 Free.  7th grader Caroline Wilson finished 2nd in the 100 Free and 4th in the 50 Free.  8th Grader Meghna Katta finished 3rd in the 50 Free.  Martinson, Wilson, Katta, and Conners won both the 200 Medley and Free Relays.  Francesca Burkhardt finished well in the 100 Free and 100 Back while 7th grader Hannah Byers placed in the 100 Free and 100 Breastroke.  Hutson Chilton finished 2nd in the 100 Breastroke. Wiley Bishop, Priya Katta, and Latha Karne all had great freestyle swims and Bishop, Teague, Byers, and Chilton finished 2nd in the 400 Free Relay.  The Raiders are off until after Fall Break.

The Raiders continued where they left off before Fall Break.  They boys defeated Lee, Butler, and Hazel Green while the girls defeated Lee and Madison County.  Cameron Conners won both the 100 Free and 100 Breastroke, Kevin Byrne won the 200 Free, Chandler Hinson won the 100 Back, Nathan Moore won the 50 Free, and Michael Harris won the 100 Fly.  All three relays were winners with Derek Russell swimming on both the 200 Medley and 400 Free with Conners, Byrne, and Hinson.  The 200 Free Relay added Braxton Conners, Connor McDaris, Harris, and Moore.  The Lady Raiders were led by seventh grader Sarah Abbott Martinson with double wins in the 100 Free and 100 Back, Amelia Conners the 50 Free, and Lily Teague the 200 Free.  The relays were also winners with Francesca Burkhardt, Hannah Byers, Wylie Bishop, and Conners on the 200 Medley, Nina Ramachandran, Byers, Martinson, and Conners in the 200 Free Relay, and Hutson Chilton, Burkhardt, Bishop and Martinson on the 400 Free Relay.  The Raiders will be in the pool against defending champions Bob Jones on Monday October 19 at Dublin Park.

The Raiders finished 2nd overall in the Bob Jones Annual Autumn Challenge to Bob Jones with a total of 176 points.  The boys were led by Cameron Conners with two second place finishes in the 200 IM and 100 Breastroke.  Chandler Hinson won the 500 Free with a personal best and finshed 3rd in the 100 Back while Derek Russell had a 3rd place in the 200 Free and 4th in the 100 Breastroke.  Hudson Robb had a 3rd place in the 100 Free and 12th in the 100 Back while Nathan Moore finshed 3rd in the 50 Free and 6th in the 100 Free.  Braxton Conners had a 4th place in the 500 Free.  The 200 Medley Relay of Robb, Russell, Hinson, and C. Conners finshed 2nd and also finshed 2nd in the 400 Free Relay with B. Conners swimming for Robb.  The 200 Free Relay of Moore, B. Conners, Michael Harris, and Connor McDaris finshed 3rd.  The Lady Raiders were led by Kristyn Wilson who won both the 200 and 500 Free while 7th grader Sarah Abbott Martinson finshed 3rd in the 50 Free and 5th in the 100 Back.  Amelia Conners finshed 4th in the 50 Free and 6th in the 100 Breastroke while Caroline Wilson finished 14th in the 50 Free, Francesca Burkhardt finished 10th in the 100 Back, and Wylie Bishop finshed 9th in the 100 Breastroke.  The 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relay of Martinson, Conners, C. Wilson, and K. Wilson finished 2nd while the 200 B Free Relay of Bishop, Burkhardt, Hutson Chilton, and Hannah Byers finished 5th and their 200 Medley Relay finshed 8th.  7th grader Hannah Byers swam personal bests in both the 50 Free and 100 Breastroke.

The numbers game was not on the side of Randolph the night of City Meet, Tuesday, Nov. 17. Huntsville and Grissom both brought over 70 swimmers each to the meet, but both Randolph's boys and girls gave them all they could ask for and more at the Natatorium. 

The boys team of Chandler Hinson, Cameron Conners, Derek Russell, and Kevin Byrne started the night with a huge win in the 200 Medley Relay, out touching Grissom by 0.02 seconds. Kevin Byrne was just barely out touched himself for 2nd in the 200 Freestyle, and he also came in third in the 500 Free. Cameron Conners was a double winner in the 200 IM and 100 Breast with freshman Derek Russell a close 2nd in the same events. Chandler Hinson had a great night, showing no fear as an 8th grader by winning the 100 Back and just barely being out touched by a senior in the 500 Free for second place. The four again teamed up to dominate the 400 Free Relay and leave the night with some satisfaction of victory. 

Nathan Moore had a good meet, finishing 5th in both the 50 and 100 Free, Hudson Robb, coming off his cross country team's state championship, finished 6th in the 100 Free and 8th in the 100 Back. Braxton Conners finshed 6th in the 200 Free and 5th in the 500 Free. The 200 Free Relay of Conners, Moore, Michael Harris, and Sam Denny finshed 3rd. 

Youth was apparent on the girls side, with only one of the relay team members in upper school. Kristyn Wilson led the way with wins in the 500 Free and 100 Breast while helping the 200 Medley Relay team to a 3rd place and the 200 Free Relay team to a 2nd place. Caroline Wilson, Amelia Conners, Sarah Abbott Martinson, and Meghna Katta all helped with the relays. Sarah Abbott finished 5th in the 100 Free and 7th in the 50 Free while Wylie Bishop finished 6th in both the 500 Free and 100 Breast. 

The NAI meet is next on Monday and then on to State Meet in Auburn. Go Raiders!!

The Raiders went to Auburn with one thing in mind and that was to swim their fastest and come home City Champs.  The four boys that made the trip were senior, Cameron Conners, junior, Kevin Byrne, freshman Derek Russell, and 8th grader, Chandler Hinson.  The boys started the night off with a fourth place finish in the Medley Relay just being out touched by Bob Jones by 0.2 seconds for a medal, but dropped their time from prelims 2 seconds.  All of the boys either moved up in rank or stayed where they were originally seeded going into finals.  Kevin Byrne placed 7th in the 200 Free and 4th in the 500 Free also just being out touched by 0.3 seconds for a medal.  Chandler Hinson swam best times in both of his events and placed 14th in the 500 Free and 15th in the 100 Back.  Derek Russell also swam many best times with a 5th place in the 200 IM and a 14th in the 100 Breast.  The surprise of the night was the 400 Free Relay which touched in 4th place, but was awarded a bronze medal when UMS-Wright was disqualified for an early take-off.  The swim of the weekend came Friday night when Cameron Conners set a new state record in the 100 Breast going a 57.10.  The record from 2005 was one he believed he could achieve just not in prelims.  He finished the weekend off with a 2nd place in the 200 IM and winning the 100 Breast on Saturday.  He also swam best times in both of his events.  The boys team ended up Fourth place overall out of 40 teams and the highest finishing school 1A-5A.  This was one of the Raiders best finishes since 2005 when the Raiders finished 3rd overall.  The Lady Raiders, who finished 22nd overall out of 43 teams, brought youth to the meet with Sophmores being the oldest swimmers on the team.  Both the 200 Medley Relay and 200 Free Relays finished 16th overall, and consisted of Sarah Abbott Martinson (7th grade), Caroline Wilson (7th grade), Wylie Bishop (Soph), Amelia Conners (Soph), and Kristyn Wilson (Soph) who swam in the prelims only because of an injury to her back.  In her individual events Kristyn finished 8th in the 200 Free and 7th in the 500 Free.  Sarah Abbott Martinson finished 29th overall in the 50 Free dropping her time by almost a second.  The Lady Raiders will only get better with more experience and depth along with the boys.  Cameron will be missed next year swimming in college somwhere, but a young Raider will step in and help the other three return to state next year with just as much success.  CONGRATS to all of the swimmers for a great season!