CHAPEL HILL— Claire Curzan from Cardinal Gibbons High School and Morgan Smalls from Panther Creek High School have been named recipients of the NCHSAA Performance of the Week awards. Each week two athletes in North Carolina High School Athletic Association competition are selected for this award from nominations received from media and school administrators.
Curzan, a freshman from the Cardinal Gibbons women’s swimming team, had a pair of incredible swims in the 2019 4A State Championship Meet. She took home first place in the 100 Butterfly and the 100 Backstroke and set a new state meet records in both events. Curzan swam the 100 Butterfly in 51.60 seconds, the second fastest time ever swam in a high school meet. Then in the 100 Backstroke, she swam a 51.88 second time which was the seventh fastest time ever in a high school meet.
Smalls, a junior on the Panther Creek women’s indoor track team, set three new state meet records in the high jump, long jump and triple jump as she was named the MVP of the 4A Women’s Indoor Track Championships. She cleared 6’1” in the high jump, the #1 performance in high school competition this year and #4 all-time. She also anchored the third-place 4 X 200 Relay team and led the Catamounts to a Runner-Up finish in the meet.
Weekly recipients will be recognized on the NCHSAA Website and social media pages. They will also be honored at a banquet for all recipients from this year in April. The deadline for nominations is each Monday at 5 p.m through the online form that can be found here.
