WHEELING — Charles Schellhase was originally slated to swim first for the Wheeling Park 400 freestyle relay team in Saturday’s final event. Coach Pat Durkin and assistant Amy Hensler saw that the senior was having a strong day and decided to make him the last swimmer of the race.

The move paid off as he passed St. Clairsville’s Matthew Marling on the final lap to win the heat by less than a second.

The strong finish for the boys was just the exclamation point on the Patriots’ dominating victory in the Wheeling Park Holiday Invitational.

Park tallied 119 points, well ahead of runner-up Parkersburg South’s score of 71. St. Clairsville was third with 64 points.

“It was a great race at the end,” Durkin said. “We had a comfortable lead but their third swimmer caught them back up. But Schellhase hung on. Chucky had a nice meet (Saturday) and swam hard in every race he swam in.

“He was having a good day and Coach Hensler made the switch. It’s just one of those things where he was doing good so we put him in.”

The Red Devils did their damage in the girls’ portion of the event as they accumulated 107 points, while Wheeling Park followed with 81 and Fairmont Senior was third at 55.

“Congratulations to the St.C. girls’ team,” Durkin said. “They are outstanding but our girls swam well, too. We set a lot of PRs (Saturday).

“A lot of good swimmers came and that’s what we wanted. Our boys were pushed and if you want to be good, you have to swim against the best people. There were 17 good schools here and I’m really happy with how we did.”

Schellhase, the defending state champion in the 500 freestyle, took home third-place honors in both the 500 (1:58.55) and 200 (5:27.54) freestyles on Saturday to garner points for the Patriots. Devanand Kuttan also had a big day for the Patriots as he placed first in the 200 IM in 2:19.21.

Alexander Dague, Schellhase, Manaved Kuttan and Devanand Kuttan finished first in the 200 medley relay at a time of 1:51.13.

Schellhase was joined by Caleb Lucas, Alexander Dague and Manaved Kuttan in the 400. The same group captured the top spot in the 200 relay, as well, at a 1:37.71 pace.

“The last race was a tough one,” St. Clairsville coach Ernie Banks said. “But I’ll take third against quality teams like Wheeling Park and Parkersburg South any day of the week. Those are two tough, big schools and for us to be in the running with them impresses me. Our core group of Ethan (Banks), Matthew (Marling) and Nathan (Yost) are great.”

Marling was the top finisher in the 50 freestyle with a mark of 24.53.

Casadie DiBetta turned in quite a performance to lead the Red Devils girls’ team to victory.

She was first in both the 100 breaststroke (1:05.90) and the 200 IM (2:18.76), while also anchoring the 200 medley relay team of Olivia Moyer, Kylie McKeegan and Maggie Marody, which captured first and set a school record in 1:54.92.

“DiBetta impressed me in the 200 IM and in the 100 breaststroke,” Ernie Banks said. “She is young, fresh and is always smiling. She is a breath of fresh air and is also a cheerleader, so she is doing both right now.

“The medley relay Olivia, Kylie, Casadie and Maggie did well, too and broke a school record. They are just going to keep working hard and what is impressing me is that they are breaking these records and they are really tired. I am looking forward to what they can do when they are rested at the end of the season.

“They leave absolutely everything in the pool. We had to basically pull Olivia out of the pool because she was so tired.”

Marody made her presence felt in the 500 freestyle with a win in 5:23.17.

In boys’ action, Martins Ferry’s Jarrett Bolinger topped the charts in the 100 freestyle (50.50) and the 100 breaststroke (1:04.94).

Parkersburg South received victories from Macguire McDuff in the 200 (1:53.39) and Rojo Sato in the 100 butterfly (56.18).