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Senior Fernanda Vasquez swimming the last leg of the 400 Free Style Relay in her final swim of her High School Swim season. Jeanine Apuron | Sea Lions
Miner swimmers competed in the Southern Arizona Regional Qualifier Swim Meet in Oro Valley at Canyon Del Oro High School on Oct. 31- Nov. 1. It was the final opportunity for 23 teams from Southern Arizona to achieve qualifying times for the state championship meet to be held Nov. 7-8. Miner swimmers were at their best swimming against some of the best swimmers in the state from much larger schools like Salpointe, Catalina Foothills, Ironwood Ridge, Canyon Del Oro, Cienega, Sahuaro, Rincon, Buena, Tucson, Mountain View, and Douglas. The Girls 18th place was respectable for the level of competition. The Boys had an exceptional meet and finished tied for fourth place with Buena High School from Sierra Vista. Only swimming powerhouses Salpointe, Catalina Foothills and Ironwood Ridge beat the Miners.
Preliminaries were held Friday with the top 16 swimmers advancing to the finals on Saturday. The Miners swam well enough in preliminaries to advance all three Boys relays and one Girls Relay to the finals on Saturday. The Miners also shined in the individual events. Each of the seven boys on the team advanced at least one individual event to the finals. Against the tough competition from the 22 other teams, none of the girls were able to advance to finals in individual events.
The Boys Medley Relay team of Will Newman, Taylor Woods, Colbey Stratton, and Robert Sweeney achieved a state qualifying consideration time and new school record in the prelims with a 1:56.66 and went on to swim a 1:54.37 in finals to greatly improve the chance of swimming this relay at the state championship meet.
In the finals, Jacob Christian swam a personal best of 2:08.61 to finish 14th in the 200 Freestyle. In the 200 Individual Medley, the all-around event in swimming, three Miner swimmers finished in the top 16. Taylor Woods finished seventh with a time of 2:26.80, Michael Garcia finished 13th in 2:44.53 and Alec Newman finished 15th in 2:59.42.
Colbey Stratton showed he can sprint with the upperclassmen, finishing 14th place with a time of 24.84 in the 50 Freestyle.
Will Newman finished fourth in the 100 Butterfly with a new school record time of 57.06 (and Automatic State Qualifying Time). Michael Garcia showed the Miner depth in the Butterfly finishing 15th in 1:15.14.
Colbey Stratton broke the school record in the 100 Freestyle finishing with a time of 55.04 on his way to an impressive eighth place finish.
In the always exciting 200 Freestyle Relay, most of the top eight teams were seeded within a second of each other after prelims. In a flurry of sprints and relay exchanges, the Miner team of the Stratton, Woods, Christian, and Will Newman finished fourth with a new school record time of 1:37.68 (state qualifying consideration time).
After a very short rest, Will Newman finished second in a close 100 Backstroke race in school record time of 57.53 (automatic qualifying time). Taylor Woods finished 13th with a personal best time of 1:09.38 in the 100 Backstroke.
The 400 Free Relay team of Christian, Garcia, Alec Newman, and Robert Sweeny all swam personal best times to finished 10th with a time of 4:07.78.
The Miner Girls made their only event in finals count. The 400 Freestyle Relay Team of Raya Woods, Cita Sweeney, Elyssia Aguilar and Fernanda Vasquez swam to an 11th place finish with a time of 5:10.82.
With five new school records, and some great individual and relay swims, the Miners Boys look ready to compete in the Division II State Championship Meet at Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa on Nov. 8 and 9. Will Newman is scheduled to compete with automatic times in the 200 Individual Medley and 100 Backstroke. The Miners have consideration times in all three relays and hope to be among the top 24 that compete. Miner swimmers will have to wait until seeding is done later this week to determine which relays they will be swimming.
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