By Bria Irizarry
Twitter: @daathletics
Instagram: @dacavsathletics
Durham Academy swimming kicked off the 2021–2022 season on Monday afternoon at the Orange County Sportsplex in a meet vs. Carolina Friends School, Trinity School of Durham and Chapel Hill, and Trinity Academy of Raleigh. DA’s boys and girls teams each took first place, scoring 562 points and 615 points respectively.
The swim team is captained by seniors Matthew Krieger and Lars Oehler on the boys side and juniors Siri Oehler and Holly Wilcox on the girls side. The girls 400-yard freestyle relay team took first place, headlined by junior MacKenna Morris, eighth-grader Kenzie Kim and sophomore Riley Kim.
The Cavs also scored first place in the individual events, including ninth-grader Ian Platts-Mills and Kenzie Kim in the 100-yard breaststroke; junior Eva Boehlke in the 100-yard backstroke; ninth-grader Bennett Harris and Boehlke in the 100-yard butterfly; and Platts-Mills and Kenzie Kim in the 200-yard individual medley.
Assistant swim coach Theresa Shebalin was proud of her team’s strong performance, having just under two weeks to prepare.
“We have a relatively young team this year, but they are already working together as a team,” she said. “I was especially proud to see DA swimmers congratulating their competition from the other schools at the end of races and cheering for teammates throughout the meet.”
The Cavaliers will be back in the pool after the Thanksgiving break on Wednesday, Dec. 1, at the Triangle Aquatics Center, where they will face Cary Academy at 11 a.m.
Boys Basketball
The varsity boys basketball team has dropped its first three contests of the 2021–2022 season. The Cavs battled with South Wake on Friday night in Kirby Gym and took a three-point lead with just a minute left in the game, but the Sabres sank a game-winning 3-pointer to pull out the 51-48 win. On Tuesday, DA hit the road to face Wesleyan and lost the contest 80–47. DA has seen a significant scoring impact from junior Jake Chisholm, who put up 18 points, six rebounds and two assists on Friday and 22 points on Tuesday.
The Cavs take on the Bulldogs of Durham School of the Arts tonight at 7 in Kirby Gym and will host Voyager Academy on Monday, ahead of the Thanksgiving break.
Girls Basketball
The varsity girls basketball team is now 1–2 on the season after losing its last two games by only two and four points. In their home opener on Friday, the Cavs faced off against South Wake, and despite a 7–0 run in the fourth quarter that put them ahead by nine points, they could not hold onto the lead — the Sabres came away with the 44–42 win.
Tuesday evening, DA’s defense was tested against the Trojans of Wesleyan. In a game that saw multiple lead changes, the Cavs were ahead by one point at the half but down by four points nearing the end of the game. Ultimately, the Cavs fell 44–40 as Wesleyan capitalized off free throws in the last minute of the contest. Ninth-grader McKenzie Graves and junior Kendall Harris each contributed 16 points and combined for 10 rebounds and five assists.
The Cavs return to Kirby Gym tonight at 5:30 to take on Durham School of the Arts and will host Voyager Academy on Monday at 6 p.m.
Keeping Up with the Cavs
As always, you can keep up with the Cavs on Durham Academy’s website and the Durham Academy App (available on the Apple App Store).
- For a list of all teams, their schedules and directions to games, visit www.da.org/teams.
- Click on an individual team to subscribe to automatic alerts about athletics results, postponements and cancellations, calendar and athletic event reminders.
- All information about the daily athletics schedule is also available on DA’s Athletics Hotline: 919-489-2534 (ext. 5).
The DA App: Schedules and Results
- The DA App allows you to keep up with athletics wherever you are. You can download the app from iTunes at http://bit.ly/DACavaliers. The DA App pulls athletics content directly from the DA website and delivers it to iOS-based devices including iPhone and iPad.
- The Athletics portion of the DA App (after launching, click Menu, then click Athletics to open) features results of recent games, a list of upcoming contests and team records.