CARY - Chapel Hill will head into this weekend's N.C. High School Athletic Association swimming and diving regionals after finishing strong in the Carolina-6 3A Conference meet last week in Cary.

Swimming last Tuesday at the Triangle Aquatic Center, the Chapel Hill girls took firsts in all but one of the swim events and won their conference championship with 691 points to 588 for runner-up Cardinal Gibbons. Orange, with Michaela Nolte as the only swimmer to deprive the CHHS girls of a sweep, was third with 415 points.

Chapel Hill's Lexi Mendes and Joey Duronio earned honors as the Carolina Athletic Conference female and male Swimmers of the Year.

Duronio was the only Chapel Hill swimmer to win individual titles in the boys' meet. He won the 200 freestyle (1:47.68) and 100 free (48.38) to help the CHHS boys (618 points) take second behind Gibbons, which won with 715. Northern Vance (270) was a distant third, and Orange (236) was fourth

Wesley Sigmon was a double winner for Cardinal Gibbons, taking firsts in the 200 Individual Medley (2:07.09) and the 100 Backstroke (57.34). He also swam a leg in both the winning 200 and 400 Free Relays. Cardinal Gibbons also won the boys' 200 Medley to sweep the relays.

The Chapel Hills girls likewise swept their relays. The Tigers put multiple teams into the pool for each of the three relays and came out with two top-three finishes in each for extra points

Anabelle Durham, Kaitlin Jones, Mendes and Jennifer Lyu won the opening 200 medley relay in 1:53.76. Allie Krasnov, Rachel Samuelson, Caroline Liu and Jones on the 200 Free Relay with a time of 1:45.33. In the climatic 400 Free Relay, Lyu, Krasnov, Mendes and Durham won in 3:54.50

Nolte won the 50 Free with a time of 25.24 seconds.

Mendes (100 Butterfly, 500 Freestyle) and Liu (100 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke) also both came up with two individual titles for CHHS.

Durham won the initial 200 IM (2:15.46), followed by Krasnov with her win in the 200 Freestyle (2:04.27), then Lyu in the 100 Free (55.17).

With another championship in the books, 22 of the Tigers now have qualifying times for the regionals, most of them in more than one event.

The NCHSAA 3A East Regional, which includes Orange and Cardinal Gibbons along with CHHS, will begin shortly after noon Saturday at the Goldsboro Family YMCA.

The 1A/2A East -- featuring defending champion Carrboro -- will be 4 p.m. Saturday at the Triangle Aquatic Center in Cary. The 4A Central, with PAC-6 champion East Chapel Hill and its conference rivals, will be 11 a.m. Saturday at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.