Evan Apuron. Photo courtesy Apuron Photography
In USA Swimming, the competition level between State Championships and National Championships is referred to as Sectional Championships. The United States is divided into Sections. This year’s Sectional Meet for the Four Corner States (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico) was held at the Phoenix Country Day Pool March 22-25.
To qualify for the meet, swimmers must attain qualifying times at a USA Swimming Sanctioned Meet. Sectionals bring the best swimmers of any age (no age divisions) to the championship meet format which holds preliminaries in the mornings, with the fastest 32 swimmers advancing to the finals in the evening.
It is quite an accomplishment to qualify for this meet. Evan Apuron qualified as a 14 year old boy, which is a tremendous achievement. He qualified to swim 5 individual events at the meet, but chose to swim just three to gain experience at this level of competition. Apuron swam the 200 Breaststroke and 200 Butterfly to a 59th and 46th place respectively on his first day of competition. On his second day of competition, Apuron earned a top 32 finish in prelims in the 400 Individual Medley (IM) with a time of 4:15.70, more than 2 seconds faster than his previous best. That evening in the Finals Session, Apuron had another great swim to finish 30th.
Sea Lions Coach Alex Gort proudly summed up his thoughts.
“Evan did a great job as the first swimmer to represent the Sea Lions at Sectionals. He set a tough goal for himself and then he did the hard work that was necessary to accomplish it. The experience he gained at the meet will be valuable in the future- a future that I am very excited about,” he said.
Gort went on to add, “I am confident that more Sea Lions will qualify for Sectionals next year.”
Apuron learned to swim and got his first taste of competitive swimming as a Sea Lion, participating in Sea Lions summer swimming program. Children of all ages and swimming abilities (even non-swimmers who want to learn to swim) can join the team. Parents can register their children for the team at the Mammoth Pool during practices 4 – 5:30 p.m. on weekdays. Check the Sea Lion Website (sealionsswimteam.com) or contact Alex Gort for more information at 896-2190.