by 
Daniel Garcia Backstroke. Photo by Apuron Photography
On Thursday, Oct. 19, the Miner Swimmers traveled to the Terra Del Sol Pool to compete in a triangle meet against Palo Verde and Sabino High Schools. The Miners Girls finished second to Sabino High School, the team scores for the Girls were: Sabino 56, San Manuel 24, and Palo Verde 14. The Boys won a close meet: San Manuel 38, Palo Verde 33, and Sabino 17.
Gianna Sweeney Breaststroke. Photo by Apuron Photography
The Sabino Girls are the 2016 Division III Swimming Champions. The Miner Girls swam very well with many personal best times and managed to win 3 events at the meet. Gianna Sweeney won the 200 Individual Medley and the 100 Breaststroke against tough competition. Darien Apuron won the 100 Backstroke. But the team depth of the Sabino Sabercats was just too much for the Miners to overcome.
The Boys won 6 races at the meet. The Medley Relay team of Michael Primero-Predgo, Jayden Smith, Evan Apruon, and Daniel Garcia got things off to a good start for the Miners for a win. Evan won the 200 IM and 500 Free, while Michael won the 50 Free and 100 Free. Scoring valuable points, Daniel finished second in both the 100 Fly and 100 Back, while Jayden finished second in the 200 Free and third in the 100 Breaststroke. The score was close enough that if either the Miners or the Palo Verde Titans won the final event of the meet, the 400 Free Relay, their team would win the meet. Michael swam a good lead off leg, but it was the outstanding relay swims by Daniel and Jayden in the second and third legs (personal best times by both) that kept the race even as the relays entered the anchor legs. Both teams had their best swimmers swimming last, but Evan would not be denied and brought home the victory for the Miners.
The win for the Boys brought them to 6 wins on the season, which is a remarkable achievement considering with only 4 boys they were outnumbered at every meet. The Girls team finished the season with 9 wins tying the most number of wins by the Miner Girls Swim Team (2012 also had 9 wins).
Miner Swimmers will compete in the Southern Arizona Regional Meet on Friday and Saturday. 24 Teams from schools of all sizes (most much larger than San Manuel) are expected to compete at Preliminaries on Friday (Miners Prelims Session is 1:00 pm) and the top 16 swimmers in each event will advance to Finals on Saturday (8:00 am). Several Miners have already qualified for the Division III State Championship Meet to be held on Nov 3-4. The meet this weekend will be the last chance to qualify.
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
by by