The progression throughout the season continued for Oxford when they took top-3 finishes in the Class II North Half swim meet. The meet was held at the Delta State University Aquatic Center on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland.

It is a marginal improvement for the Chargers after finishing in sixth place in last season’s North Half meet.

The boy’s team finished with 60 points while the girl’s team ended with 68. Madison Central took first in the girl’s meet with 154 points while Tupelo dominated the boy’s meet with 158 points. The Golden Wave were the only team with more than 79 points.

“We did what we needed to do,” Oxford coach Robert Gonzalez said. “All relays advanced and projected scorers made it to state. We achieved one of our goals of finishing in north half in the top three and now look forward to completing the season with two more effective weeks of practice, then taper and try and get some lifetime best swims for our kids to complete the season.”

The North and South meets operate a 6-6-4 format with the top six finishers in both races automatically qualifying then the next four fastest swimmers also advance to the Class II State Championship meet at the Tupelo Aquatic Center in Tupelo on Oct. 28

Combined, Oxford had eight swimmers take top-three finishes in their respective races. The Chargers took home three top-two finishes in the relay events with the girl’s claiming two and the boy’s earning one.

In the girl’s 200 freestyle relay the team of Catherine Field, Kathryn Byars, Lucy Chiniche, Julia Dennis, Hannah Harper and Virginia Sudduth took second with a time of one minute, 46 seconds. The team of Field, Byars, Chiniche, Dennis, Sudduth and Mary Waller placed third in the girl’s 400 free with a time of 4:01.80. In the boy’s 200 freestyle relay the team of Bryce Goszkowicz, William Tann, Brannon Kovachev, William Carrington, Christian Norris and Wilton Byars placed third with a time of 1:37.04.

In the individual races, Oxford had three swimmers take top-3 places and 15 qualified for the state meet all together with five swimmers qualifying in multiple races. All relay teams advanced to Tupelo as well.