In all, the Cougars swam their way to the program's second state championship, the first one coming 20 years ago in 1991.

"Coming in and having our girls take the relay and set the state record just set the tone for the night," Apex coach Tim Kane said. "Once they got that, it was almost no stopping them."

Apex first broke the state record in the girls 200-yard medley relay, edging East regional winner Cary. Holding onto the lead going into 400-yard freestyle relay, the Cougars shattered the old state record by more than two seconds with a 3:29:23, which was only 13 one hundreths of a second ahead of Panther Creek.

Second-place Cary (177.5 points) and third-place Panther Creek (168) had the co-most outstanding swimmers in the Imps' Victoria Mitchell and the Catamounts' Henriette Stenkvist.

Stenkvist won the girls 100- and 200-yard freestyle. Mitchell won the 200-yard IM and the 500-yard freestyle.

Apex didn't have that one standout performer, but Victoria Tschoke, Hayley Tomlinson and Jessica Godlewski provided more than enough depth for the title.

"It feels great," Godlewski said. "I'm just happy for my team and so sad that I have to leave them next year."

Tomlinson won the 100-yard breaststroke and finished third in the 200-yard IM. Godlewski won the 100-yard butterfly and finished second in the 200-yard IM.

Broughton's Sabrina Benson won the 100-yard backstroke with Green Hope's Hannah Moore in second and Tschoke in third. Moore also finished second in the 500-yard freestyle with Panther Creek's Kristin Connors in third.

Middle Creek's Madeline Martin was second in the girls diving competition held Thursday. Middle Creek's Nicole Giamber finished third in the 100-yard breaststroke and fourth in the 200 IM.

On the boys side, Charlotte Providence repeated its 4-A title with a whopping 267.5 points. Green Hope finished second with 197 points and East Chapel Hill was third with 175.

"I'm very pleased with how we performed," Green Hope coach Richard Wesendunk said. "I relied on my secondary swimmers to get us up there, and they came through. I had kids move up nine places, I had kids that prior to the consolation finals, didn't have times that qualified."

Green Hope was paced by its win in the 200-yard medley relay, just a hair in front of East Chapel Hill, and Dominick Glavich's win in the 200-yard IM.

The co-most outstanding boys swimmers were Sanderson's Ollie Clayton-Luce and Providence's Kip Darmody.

Clayton-Luce, a senior, just missed a state record in the 100-yard freestyle, but did set a new 4-A record in the 50-yard freestyle that had stood since 1989.

Apex's William Deforest won the 500-yard freestyle with West Johnston's Andrew Henry finishing second. Henry also finished second in the 200-yard IM.

East Chapel Hill diver Charlie Retter won the boys competition in 1-meter diving on Thursday at the Pullen Park Aquatic Center.

East Chapel Hill's David Williams and Apex's William Deforest took second and third, respectively, in the 100-yard butterfly.