“I’m just sad that the season is all over. We all are,” Smith said. “Everyone feels like we should just be getting started.”

East Chapel Hill, which swept the Piedmont Athletics Conference and NCHSAA Central Region championships, finished fourth in the boys’ meet and 12th in the girls’ meet.

Green Hope won its first boys’ swimming state championship, while Mecklenburg County’s Hough won the girls’ championship in what was a Thursday filled with state records and all-American times at Triangle Aquatic Center.

Heading into the boys’ last two events, four teams were within five points of each other in a race for second place. Green Hope won with 259 points, while Hough’s boys (190) were runners-up. South Mecklenburg (175) was third, East Chapel Hill (168) was fourth and three-time defending champ Charlotte Providence (156) was fifth.

Hough turned the girls’ meet into a laugher while setting four state records. Meet MVP Emily Allen, a Hough sophomore, had a hand in each -- in the 50 and 100 freestyles and the 200 and 400 free relays.

Hough’s girls had 323 points, while Green Hope had 236. East Chapel Hill had 64.5.

East Chapel Hill’s Koya Osada was second in the 200-yard IM, earning an automatic all-America cut in the process of finishing in 1:51.19, and second in the 100-yard backstroke, where he finished with a provisional all-American time of 50.53 seconds.

Max Howes of East Chapel Hill also made it into the night’s championship heats, where he finished fifth in the 200 free and sixth in the 100 free.

Morgan Smith was the lone East Chapel Hill female to reach the championship heats, where she also finished fifth in the 200 free and sixth in the 100 free.

Riverside’s Aaron Daniels-Freeman won Wednesday’s state boys’ diving championship by 1.83 points, while Panther Creek’s Connor Callahan was third and

East Chapel Hill’s James Brady was fourth in the1-meter diving competition held Wednesday..

Chapel Hill, Deselm get a pair of thirds

In the 3A meet Friday at the TAC, Chapel Hill finished third in both the girls’ and boys’ meets in a record-setting day.

Charlotte Catholic won all but four of the girls’ events and rolled to victory with a whopping 469 points for earning its 12th straight NCHSAA crown over two different classifications. Waxhaw Marvin Ridge was second with 258, followed by Chapel Hill (228), Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons (184) and Concord Jay Robinson (133).

Cardinal Gibbons held on to win its fourth consecutive state 3-A boys’ crown and sixth in a row over two classifications, led by Bailey Maloney. Maloney, who took top honors in both the 50 free and 100 free and swam the anchor leg on the record-setting 200 free relay team and the winning 400 free relay.

Gibbons's boys recorded 312 points to 283 for Charlotte Catholic, followed by Chapel Hill (212), Jay Robinson (149) and Marvin Ridge (132).

The CHHS girls' 200 medley relay of Anabelle Durham, Kaitlin Jones, Claire DeSelm and Jennifer Lyu earned a second place behind Charlotte Catholic with their provisional all-American time of 1:47.95. They later took second in the 400 freestyle relay.

DeSelm finished third in both the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly. Her time of 56.13 seconds in the 'fly was good enough for a provisional all-American mark. Jones was third in the 100 breaststroke. Durham took fourth in the 200 freestyle and Lyu finished sixth in the 100 free.

On the boys’ side, CHHS again did well in the relays. Josh Taekman, Sam Freedberg, Patrick O’Donnell and Christopher Eron earned fourth place in the 200 medley relay, and later O’Donnell, Emery Harwell, Eron and Jake Pudik took fourth in the 200 freestyle relay. Harwell, Alex Werden, Harrison Easterly and Freedberg took fifth in the 400 free relay.

Taekman earned a fourth place in the 500 free, where Werden finished sixth and Easterly ninth. O’Donnell was sixth in the 100 breaststroke. Pudik took eighth place in the boys’ 100 free.

James Willingham of CHHS placed fifth in the 1-meter diving competition held Thursday.

W.E. Warnock of the CHN and the NCHSAA’s Rick Strunk contributed to this report.