The 2026 high school swim season is coming to an end, and with that, postseason tournaments are coming up every week. The most recent was the conference tournament, where FVHS swimmers tried their hardest to win gold.
One of the FVHS swimmers stood out among the rest. Sophomore Murray Buddin won Greater Neuse River Conference Swimmer of the Year at the conference tournament, in addition to her gold medal finishes in three different events.
“My favorite event is the 50 freestyle. I have always enjoyed sprinting because you don’t have a lot of time to think and you just get to go fast and give it everything you have for a short period of time,” said Buddin.
The 50 yard freestyle was one of the events that Buddin placed first in at the conference tournament. She also took home the gold medal in the 100 yard butterfly and the 200 yard freestyle relay.
“This season I tried to be more team oriented and focus on my teammates’ successes just as much as mine and making the meets as fun as possible,” said Buddin.
Her conference champion 200 yard freestyle relay team showcased other talented FVHS swimmers including senior Caroline Dinuzzo, junior Alexandra Wallace and sophomore Sienna Brown.
After the conference tournament, Buddin turned her eyes towards even higher goals, with the regional tournament scheduled for the weekend after conference, she was hoping to place at least top six to qualify for states, but with her performance in the conference tournament it was clear that she can place even higher, and could’ve won gold in another post-season tournament.
“Last year I was .03 [seconds] off making states in 50 yard freestyle so that’s my overall goal for this season so not backing down at any meet and putting in the work,” said Buddin.
Unfortunately, this year’s regional tournament was cancelled due to the winter weather that rolled in both weekends they scheduled then rescheduled it for. Due to that, the NCHSAA used the seeding times for the regional tournament to determine who made states.
Luckily, Buddin made states in the 50 yard freestyle, 100 yard freestyle and the 200 yard freestyle relay with her team.
Other Fuquay-Varina swimmers that made the state tournament are Dinuzzo in the 50 yard freestyle, junior Mae Sokolowski in the 1 meter dive, the 400 yard freestyle relay team and junior Anders Swartzel in the mens 50 yard freestyle as well as the 100 yard freestyle.
This year’s state tournament will be held Thursday, Feb. 12 at 4 p.m. at the Triangle Aquatic Center.
