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First Flight boys 3A East Regional Champions, winning the meet by one point. Chad Shumaker photo

Josh Mouser dives in on the third leg of the 400 free relay. He gave anchor Merrick Shumaker a slight lead. Chad Shumaker photo

First Flight is out touched by Croatan in the 200 freestyle relay. The second place finish by First Flight was the team’s highest finish of the meet. Chad Shumaker photo

The 2025 East Regional swim team. The school took 31 swimmers to the regional meet, the most ever. Chad Shumaker photo

Dylan Hallac, Graham Baker, Merrick Shumaker and Van Digby, all from left, finished second in the 200 freestyle relay. Chad Shumaker photo

Dylan Hallac leads off the backstroke leg of the 200 medley relay. Chad Shumaker photo

Merrick Shumaker, left, beats Croatan High School anchor Gavin Pesko in the 400 freestyle relay and First Flight boys win the 3A East Regional meet by one point. Chad Shumaker photo

Senior Jack Spivey finished 8th in the 500 freestyle, shown here, and also swam on the 200 medley and 400 free relays. Chad Shumaker photo

In an exciting finish to an already successful season, on Saturday, February 1 the First Flight High School boys swim team edged out Croatan High School to win the 2025 North Carolina High School East Regional 3A swim meet at Cary by one point.

Finishing 8 seconds and five places behind the Cougars in the opening 200 Yard Medley Relay, the Nighthawks came back in the second event and outscored Croatan 25-6. Swapping the lead throughout the meet, the Cougars earned its points from an abundance of top finishers while the Nighthawks relied on strength in numbers to score in all but one event and trail the Carteret County team by a single point going into the final event.

Along with other teams lined up ready to try to win the final event, the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay, it was a two team competition for the overall meet championship with First Flight in lane two and Croatan in lane three. The first of those two teams to finish would win the meet.

At the starter’s gun Graham Baker led off and Jack Spivey swam the first two First Flight legs. When Spivey touched Josh Mouser for the third leg, Mouser and Croatan’s Jason Michalowicz were virtually even. Swept up in the excitement of the moment, a natatorium full of about a thousand moms, dads and other swimmers provided a thunderous cacophony so loud nobody could hear the person next to them. Matching stroke for stroke through the first 50 yards, Mouser then began inching away after the second turn and continued to gain valuable inches off the third turn as he headed home. Inches that would give his teammate Nighthawks Merrick Shumaker a slight lead.

Croatan’s anchor Gavin Pesko towered a bit over Shumaker, who stood calmly on the block oblivious to the pandemonium around him. As Mouser plowed home with a half-body length lead, Shumaker very briefly glanced over at the other anchors, adjusted his goggles one last time, lightly shook out his arms, and then laser-focused on Moser’s finish before blowing off the blocks with a one-tenth of a second lead.

It appeared at first that Pesko’s size and dive would give him a slight advantage, but Shumaker maintained a never-changing narrow lead over the first 60 yards. As the two plowed the water the gap between them didn’t decrease; nor did it increase – until it did. Heading into the final turn, as he so often did, Shumaker found another gear and started edging farther and farther ahead.

Poolside the noise from the crowd was the swell of a howling gale; the din in the natatorium so loud its weight could be felt. Although Shumaker finished fourth behind Currituck, JH Rose and Northern Nash, that was of no consequence because First Flight finished 1.4 seconds ahead of Croatan giving the Nighthawks relay team 30 points to Croatan’s 28, enough to propel First Flight past the Cougars and win the 3A East Regional Swim Championship 264 to 263.

No small feat, Croatan boys were the east regional champions for the past three years. In 2024 they won by 100 points.

Providing a tribute to several team members, coach Robert Trivette said senior Noah Savage was one of the best captains the team has ever had. Always placing his teammates first, Savage underwent serious back surgery with six months of grueling rehab between his freshman and sophomore years to become one of the team’s workhorses. At regionals he came through as usual scoring 19 points.

Another senior, Josh Mouser, has been a serious, solid performer who began swimming year-round to avoid being left behind. He had the highest regional finish of anyone on the team, 4th in the 500 free, and played a crucial role on the final relay of the meet on the way to scoring 21 points individually.

Senior Jack Spivey, another team captain, was said to be the team unifier and glue that often held everything together. A middle and distance freestyle specialist, he is usually smiling, but is focused and serious when needed. He accounted for 18 points at regionals.

A thoughtful, insightful team leader with a great sense of humor, senior Dylan Hallac was another year-round swimmer willing to embrace any challenge. Scoring 26 individual points he was also a crucial member of the 200-freestyle relay that finished a mere 28/100 of a second behind first place Croatan. That second-place relay finish was the highest place by the First Flight team.

Considered a maverick who followed his own beat and his own rhythm that got him kicked off relays or out of meets, coach Dave Tonnesen said senior Merrick Shumaker “is a racer who is all speed and no brakes.” However, the start of this year saw a visibly different swimmer than in the past, and Shumaker was the only swimmer on the team to attend every volunteer practice over the Christmas holiday break. He scored 27 points individually.

Geographically the 3A east region is the largest of the state’s three high school athletic regions. It takes in everything from the northern Outer Banks to the Raleigh-Durham area and south to the edge of Wilmington. Many excellent swimmers have come out of the region that go on to swim in college. This year 24 high schools sent swimmers to the girl’s east regional meet, and 22 boy’s teams competed. The 24 fastest swimmers from across the region qualify for the meet. First Flight took 31 swimmers to the meet this year – the most ever.

In their competition, Nighthawk girls finished in sixth place – one place higher than they were seeded to finish. Scoring points for the lady Nighthawks were McKenzie Dexter 23 points; Libby Stewart 18 points; Lana Walters 14 points; Allison Roper 11 points; Schuyler Wilson 10; Cameron Piland 9; Nellie Hall and Sadie Wills 4 each; Hayden Hall 3 and Addy Boyer 2 points.

Looking back, the story of the 2025 senior swim class of First Flight, their season and the boys’ path to the 3A East Regional Championship is an interesting one.

Initially, First Flight swim coaches Dave Tonnesen and Robert Trivette were stunned when almost 20 freshmen showed up for a 6 a.m. swim practice that fall four years ago. That doubled the size of the swim team and caused some concern that swimmers might have to be cut. Not a pleasant thought for coaches whose philosophy is that every kid who wants to swim, should swim. The group was a mix of newbies. A few with some YMCA swim team experience, others were athletic surfers wanting more water time, several were good athletes who can play any sport pretty well but don’t star, and a few who didn’t have a clue about swimming or why they were there.

Over the next couple of years, one or two swimmers were added, some dropped off to do other sports, and others passed on the early morning practices. Most of that original group remained, however, and made it to swim this their final year. Over the course of four years, those seniors regularly woke up at 5:15 a.m. and swam in about 350 swim practices. This season the team graduates 15 seniors.

The class of 2025 has enjoyed great swimming success. Neither the girls nor the boys teams lost any head-to-head dual meets, nor a conference championship meet in four years. The teams usually finished near the top of the standings at the 3A East Regionals: the boy often in the top five and the girls in the top eight. One year the girls finished third and the boy second, but First Flight had never won the meet.

This year the regular season opened and coaches were excited to see a large, experienced group ready for action. Added to the seniors were a couple of very talented freshmen and sophomores on both the boys and girls sides. And with a solid pod of two- and three-year rapidly developing sophomores and juniors, the season ahead looked promising.

Within weeks of the first starter’s horn both coaches began thinking about where this season might go.

“Neither one of us said a word at first. We don’t like to get ahead of things,” Trivette said. “Turns out, we both had been thinking that maybe now – not later – our focus should shift to beyond the regular season, beyond the conference meet to regionals. We’ve never done that before.”

It wasn’t long before they knew they had something special in the water.

Breezing through the regular season, boys won the mid-January conference meet by 55 points and the girls by 69 points. Neither team dominated with only one or two superstars. The boy won only six of the 11 conference events, and the girls, seven. But in almost every race where another team won, First Flight took second, third and even fourth several times. Both boys and girls conference MVP awards went to athletes from other teams. First Flight teams were winning with their depth.

Another crucial piece of First Flight’s 2025 success was the addition of assistant coaches Megan Pulley and Cameron Defoe. Pulley and Defoe were excellent Division I college swimmers – Pulley at N.C. State and Defoe at the University of South Carolina. After graduating last spring, they came to the Outer Banks to study and prepare for the M-CATs, the Medical College Admission Test for admissions into medical school. They found out about the high school team through First Flight swimmers met while working for Kill Devil Hills Ocean Rescue last summer.

“It was Merrick (Shumaker) who first mentioned that we should help coach the team,” said Pulley. “We were chatting on the guard stand one day, and he was like, ‘heh, you guys should come do this.’”

The addition of two D-1 swimmers on deck gave every practice more spark and jazzed up the team. The assistants already knew about one-third of the swimmers on the first day of practice from working ocean rescue.

“It’s hard to articulate how much Megan and Cameron brought to the team – knowledge, super energy and tons of great experience. Everything they brought amped up our game tremendously,” stated Trivette. “Practices became much more focused and specialized with four coaches on deck, especially important on a large team with a wide range of abilities and only an hour to practice.”

“The quality of our coaching we could give the kids shot way up, and our stress levels went way down,” stated Tonnesen. “It was amazing having them with us.”

Team scores and individual results for local athletes at the 2025 North Carolina High School East Regional 3A swim meet at Triangle Aquatic Center Indoor Competition Pool in Cary include:

GIRLS TEAMS
1 Junius Rose 324
2 South Brunswick 244
3 Smithfield Selma 226
4 West Brunswick 189
5 Swansboro 186
6 First Flight 165
7 West Carteret 158
8 Croatan 147
9 Fike 92
10 South Central 77
11 Terry Sanford 64
12 Rocky Mount 49
13 Havelock 46
14 Harnett Central 44
15 Cape Fear 42
16 South Johnston 36
17 Currituck County 25
18 Hunt 23
19 Southern Nash 18
20 Dixon 16

GIRLS 200 YARD MEDLEY RELAY:
8 First Flight (McKenzie Dexter, Cameron Piland , Schuyler Wilson, Alexa Hallac) 2:08.70
15 Currituck (Faith Sarver, Emma Frierdich, Brooke Bincarowsky, Brooklyn Stratton)  2:25.07 4

GIRLS 200 YARD FREESTYLE:
10 Lana Walters (FF) 2:18.51
11 Libby Stewart (FF) 2:19.10
14 Sadie Wills (FF) 2:26.44
15 Nellie Hall (FF) 2:28.23

GIRLS 200 YARD IM:
7 McKenzie Dexter (FF) 2:39.03
12 Schuyler Wilson (FF) 2:47.17
23 Abby Edwards (FF) 3:10.90

GIRLS 50 YARD FREESTYLE:
12 Allison Roper (FF) 27.39 5
16 Hayden Hall (FF) 27.75 1
20 Saylor Willis (FF) 28.72

GIRLS 100 YARD BUTTERFLY:
12 Schuyler Wilson (FF) 1:13.81
15 Addison Boyer (FF) 1:19.48
21 Leah Dunn (FF) 1:23.73

GIRLS 100 YARD FREESTYLE:
11 Allison Roper (FF) 1:00.77
15 Hayden Hall (FF) 1:03.39
19 Alexa Hallac (FF) 1:04.78
21 Saylor Willis (FF) 1:05.55

GIRLS 500 YARD FREESTYLE:
7 Libby Stewart (FF) 6:11.57
10 Lana Walters (FF) 6:18.59
17 Sadie Wills (FF) 6:45.04
19 Nellie Hall (FF) 6:55.57
24 Brooklyn Stratton (CURRK) 7:20.37

GIRLS 200 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY:
7 First Flight (McKenzie Dexter, Saylor Willis, Hayden Hall, Allison Roper) 1:52.26
11 Currituck (Emma Frierdich, Ayla Baker,Emily Anderson, Brooklyn Stratton) 2:04.70

GIRLS 100 YARD BACKSTROKE:
8 McKenzie Dexter (FF) 1:09.08
13 Emma Frierdich (CURRK) 1:13.01
23 Piper Costa (FF) 1:21.45

GIRLS 100 YARD BREASTSTROKE:
9 Cameron Piland (FF) 1:23.49
11 Alyssa Carkhuff JR WOAK 1:26.21
16 Emma Frierdich (CURRK) 1:28.99
17 Kyla Corey (FF) 1:30.20

GIRLS 400 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY:
7 First Flight (Libby Stewart, Lana Walters, Hayden Hall, Allison Roper)  4:13.78 24
15 Currituck (Ayla Baker, Brooke Bincarowsky, Faith Sarver, Brooklyn Stratton)  4:57.20 4

BOYS TEAMS
1 First Flight 264
2 Croatan 263
3 South Brunswick 223
4 Junius Rose 192.5
5 Northern Nash 161.5
6 Swansboro 140.5
7 West Carteret 122
8 South Central 116
9 Harnett Central 113
10 Currituck County 107
11 Terry Sanford 94
12 Havelock 87.5
13 South Johnston 66
14 West Johnston 61
15 Charles Aycock 59
16 Smithfield Selma 46
17 Jacksonville 29
18 Southern Nash 8
19 White Oak 6
20 Cape Fear 6

BOYS 200 YARD MEDLEY RELAY:
6 First Flight (Dylan Hallac, Van Digby, Josh Mouser, Jack Spivey) 1:51.15 26
11 Currituck (Casey Kleman, Will Sarnowski, Logan Kennemore, Wyatt Noser)  2:01.43 12

BOYS 200 YARD FREESTYLE:
5 Camden Lenz (CURRK) 2:03.29
8 Graham Baker (FF) 2:04.56
10 Jack Spivey (FF) 2:06.13
13 Sam Sarbora (FF) 2:13.73
14 Dan Brown (FF) 2:14.74

BOYS 200 YARD IM:
5 Van Digby (FF) 2:16.97
10 Noah Savage (FF) 2:24.48
11 Josh Mouser (FF) 2:24.61
15 Wesley Robinson (FF) 2:32.27
21 Will Sarnowski  (CURRK) 2:48.20

BOYS 50 YARD FREESTYLE:
6 Merrick Shumaker (FF) 22.96
8 Jake McClanan (CURRK) 23.30
14 Casey Kleman (CURRK) 25.18
19 Fionn Reilly (FF) 26.03
22 Wyatt Noser (CURRK) 26.27

BOYS 100 YARD BUTTERFLY:
5 Merrick Shumaker (FF) 57.24
12 Wesley Robinson (FF) 1:04.15
23 Sam Sarbora (FF) 1:14.31

BOYS 100 YARD FREESTYLE:
6 Jake McClanan (CURRK) 51.83
7 Dylan Hallac (FF) 52.71
10 Graham Baker (FF) 55.24
14 Casey Kleman (CURRK) 57.76
20 Fionn Reilly (FF) 59.52
24 Eli Hannon (FF) 1:00.16

BOYS 500 YARD FREESTYLE:
4 Josh Mouser (FF) 5:38.92
7 Noah Savage (FF) 5:43.15
8 Jack Spivey (FF) 5:45.41
11 Dan Brown (FF) 5:50.95

BOYS 200 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY:
2 First Flight (Graham Baker, Dylan Hallac, Van Digby, Merrick Shumaker) 1:33.97

BOYS 100 YARD BACKSTROKE:
8 Camden Lenz (CURRK) 1:06.11
20 Eli Heyder (FF) 1:18.89

BOYS 100 YARD BREASTSTROKE:
5 Dylan Hallac (FF) 1:05.35
8 Van Digby (FF) 1:07.66

BOYS 400 YARD FREESTYLE RELAY:
1 Currituck (Logan Kennemore, Camden Lenz, Casey Kleman, Jake McClanan)  3:34.67
4 First Flight (Graham Baker, Jack Spivey, Josh Mouser, Merrick Shumaker)  3:36.84 30

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