WHEELING — The top swimmers of the Ohio Valley will descend on Brooke High School on Friday and Saturday for the OVAC Swimming Championships, an event where quite a few local teams are projected to feature heavily in.

In the 1A-3A and 4A meets– both to take place at 5:30 p.m. Friday but score separately, similar to the procedures at the conference cross country meet– the Linsly Cadets dot the top seedings for the individual events.

The Cadets have claimed the top spot in the team standings each of the last two seasons, and Linsly head coach Bill Brubaker wants his team in top shape Friday as well.

“I’m hoping we have all of our best performances tomorrow,” Brubaker said.

Brubaker highlighted his individual swimmers who are top seeded, of which there were many. On the women’s side, Maral Batsanal is seeded first in the 200 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. Brubaker said Batsanal is close to breaking school records this season. Greta Temporin is seeded first in the 500 freestyle, and Jasmine Lourenco is seeded first in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.

On the men’s side, Riccardo Piccini is seeded first in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. Cassio Bendenelli is seeded first in the 100 butterfly. Pablo Hernandez is seeded first in the 200 and 500 freestyle.

“All have put in the work to have very good seasons,” Brubaker said.

Brubaker also mentioned Sebastian Jayakumar, Rocco D’Aquila, Grace Norman and Sofia Azcutia.

“We have quite a few who can step in and help us out a lot, especially when you put them all together in relays,” Brubaker said.

Other top seeds include Victoria Bukingham, Nina Nappo and Elena MacKall for OVAC newcomer Columbiana on the girls side, and Columbiana’s Preston Buckingham and Beaver Local’s Cole Long on the boys side.

Linsly’s boys and girls both took the top spots in the 1A-3A competition last year, while St. Clairsville did the same in 4A.

There will be 241 swimmers from 15 schools competing in the 1A-3A and 4A meet.

In 5A, whose meet is set to take place at 11:10 a.m. Saturday, there will be 186 swimmers representing nine schools.

On the women’s side, John Marshall’s Maitlyn Miller is seeded first in the 50 and 100 freestyle, while Wheeling Park’s Molly George is seeded first in the 100 backstroke.

George, a junior, has the faith of her coach going into Friday.

“Molly’s a junior, and she’s [team] captain as a junior which we don’t do very often,” Wheeling Park head coach Mike Cook said. “She’s the top seed in the backstroke and she’s probably one of if not the best backstroker in the valley. I really think she’s going to run away with the 100 backstroke and have a huge meet. Molly, for the last three years, has done nothing but show up and deliver in big meets.”

As for Miller, the senior has been one of the more prolific swimmers in the area in recent years, and looks to continue collecting medals Saturday.

“She’s just had stellar performances throughout the year,” John Marshall head coach Timmi Snyder said. “She’s carried our 200 free relay, which is undefeated this year, and our 400 free relay also. She’s crushing it this year. She’s put in a lot of extra hours in the pool to get where she needed to be. I’m super proud of her, she’s had a great senior year.”

On the men’s side, Wheeling Park’s Levi Parker is seeded first in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke, while John Marshall’s Wyatt Jefferson is seeded first in the 100 breaststroke.

The Patriots are hoping that Parker, the captain of their boys team, can have a successful senior go-round at the conference meet.

“He’s had a pretty good year, he actually won the 200 a year ago so he’s a defending champ,” Cook said. “I think he can have a really big meet for us, he’s also a huge part of two of our relays.”

For Jefferson, expectations are high for him as well.

“My expectations are first and second,” Snyder said. “He’s going to push whoever’s first in the 200 IM, but I don’t foresee him getting any lower than first in the 100 breaststroke and second in the 200 IM. Wyatt continues to strive to be the best swimmer he can be. Same with Maitlyn, him and Maitlyn swim in the same lane, they push each other at practice every day. Every year he progressively gets so much better. I’m so proud of both of them because they’ve both done the same thing.”

Cook also highlighted Malachi Smith, Brady Bowie, Ronan Maxwell, Mallory Parks, Ella Landini, Elliana McCabe, Makyia Smith and El Green as swimmers to look out for.

Cook thought that his own team, Parkersburg South and Warren were among the contenders in the 5A boys meet, while the Monarchs would go into the girls competition as the favorite.

“I truly believe that John Marshall’s girls are the team to beat,” Cook said.

“Our team is full of great swimmers this year,” Snyder said “I’m taking 24 out of 28 kids to OVAC’s. A lot of my swimmers are going to be in the top six or top 10. I couldn’t be happier.”

Snyder mentioned Brodie Baker, Dalton Brown, Adah Aubrey, Zoe Zervos, Avery Etzel, Ella Finley and Sarah Hess among her team’s top pieces.

“These kids have come so far this year, I can’t give them enough compliments,” Snyder said. “John Marshall hasn’t had this many kids seeded so high in years. We’ve had some stellar swimmers but we haven’t had the depth that we’ve had this year.”

Snyder couldn’t recall exactly, but she surmised that the last time the Monarchs boys had won the OVAC meet was in the 1990’s, while she couldn’t remember any year the girls had won.

That could change on Saturday, especially when it comes to the Monarchs girls.

“If we aren’t at the top, we should be really close, if my kids perform as they’re seeded,” Snyder said.

Brooke’s girls and Parkersburg South’s boys won last year.