In its second meet of the season, the Lenoir City swim team lost to Sevier County by a slim margin.
The high school swimmers finished just two points behind Sevier, falling 137-135. The middle school team also came up shy 131-94.

But there were several bright spots. Relay teams put in strong performances and Lenoir City was able to qualify four more swimmers for the Knox-area Interscholastic Swim League City Meet.

Courtney Pethers, who had already qualified for the city meet in her 100-yard back stroke, swam well enough to qualify in the 100-yard butterfly as well. She posted a 1:15.28 in the butterfly, which was also good enough for a state qualifying time.

Austin Brown qualified in the 100-yard breast stroke and 200-yard freestyle, swimming times of 1:36.47 and 2:44.33 respectively.

Cole Weber and Holly Jones also qualified in the 200-yard freestyle. Weber swam a 2:41.9 and Jones swam a 2:51.86.

Ben Haney was the final qualifier for the city meet from the Sevier County meet. Haney swam a 1:24.73 in the 100-yard breast to qualify.

Pethers and Haney were also among the five individual swimmers to win events at Sevier County.

Pethers won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:19.68, Haney won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 27.72, Olivia Fisher won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 1:13.80, Seth Hughes won the 100-yard freestyle at 1:03.89 and Madison Gump swam a 5:26.04 to win the 400-yard freestyle.

The girls 200-yard medley relay of Pethers, Jones, Gump and Fisher won, as did the girls 400-yard freestyle relay of Jones, Gump, Jessica Ball and Megan Grugin. The boys 200-yard freestyle relay of Hughes, Haney, Jacob Gump and John William Harrison was also a winner.

For the middle school swimmers, Logan Wright and Rachel Scheffer were the team's only individual winners. Wright swam a 32.81 in the 50-yard freestyle and Scheffer won the 50-yard backstroke with a time of 40.53.

The middle school boys 200-yard medley relay of Nathan Holliman, Dylan Phillips, Jacob Flat and Gavin Hughes also won.

The team's next meet is scheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 1 against Powell at the Claire Donahue Aquatic Center.