The Arizona Interscholastic Association has divided High School Swimming competitions into two Divisions. High Schools with enrollment of over 1730 students are Division I and High Schools with less than 1730 students are classified as Division II.

These new divisions replaced the old 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A and 5A divisions for swimming used a couple of years ago. Both Divisions held the State Championship Meet at the Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa Nov. 2-3.

In Division II, San Manuel High School was one of the smaller schools to have a swimmer qualify to compete at the meet. Senior Wayne Newman qualified in four individual events; the 200 Individual Medley, 50 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke, and 100 Backstroke. Since rules allow competition in only two individual events, Newman opted to compete in the 50 freestyle and the 100 Breaststroke.

Preliminaries were held on Fri. morning with the top 16 advancing to finals on Sat. During the preliminary session, Newman’s first event was the 50 Freestyle where he swam against the best in the state to finish intwenty-eighth.

Later in the day, he swam the 100 Breaststroke finishing in the top 16 making the cut to swim in the finals on Saturday.

On Sat. Newman made the most of his opportunity in the spotlight by swimming a new school record time of 1:05.37 and finishing twelfth place in the 100 Breaststroke.

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