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Will Newman swims the Backstroke during the Tiger Invitational Meet.
Jeanine Apuron | Apuron Photography
Taylor Woods swims the Breast during the Tiger Invitational Meet.
Jeanine Apuron | Apuron Photography
Jacob Christian swims the Free during the Tiger Invitational Meet.
Jeanine Apuron | Apuron Photography
The Miner Swimmers attended the Marana Tiger Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 17. It was a good chance to see how good the Miners are and since it was a qualifying meet, swimmers could qualify events for the State Championship Meet on Nov. 6-7.
Seventeen teams from throughout Arizona attended the meet. Even though the Miner Swim Team is small by High School standards, they packed a powerful punch finishing in 3rd place in the overall combined (Boys and Girls) standings with 360 points. Only Deer Valley High School (Glendale) and Cienega High School (Vail) finished ahead of the Miners. The Miners finished ahead of the following high schools: Marana, Ironwood Ridge, Pusch Ridge Christian Academy, Walden Grove (Sahuarita), Mountain View, Kellis (Glendale), Florence, The Gregory School (Tucson), Goldwater, Sahuarita, Odyssey Institute, Palo Verde, Green Fields Country Day, and St Augustine.
The Miners started things off with a 2nd place finish in the Girls Medley Relay. The team of Rebekah Head, Gianna Sweeney, Darien Apuron, and Raya Woods showed that they were among the best at the meet and matched the State Qualifying time they had achieved the previous week.
In the Boys Medley Relay, the Miners beat all teams in what turned out to be an exciting race with Ironwood Ridge High School that had several lead changes. The team of Will Newman, Taylor Woods, Colbey Stratton and Jacob Christian each swam a personal best leg of the relay to better the School Record by over 2 seconds with a time of 1:50.53 on the way to victory and a State Qualifying time.
Jacob Christian finished 4th in the 200 Freestyle with a time of 2:01.88, dropping several seconds from his personal best, but narrowly missing the provisional State Qualifying time.
In the 200 Individual Medley (IM) Gianna Sweeney (2:25.67) and Darien Apuron (2:30.74) both swam faster than the school record (2:31.61) and both qualified for State. Sweeney and Apuron finished 2nd and 3rd in the all-around event in high school swimming. Will Newman swam a time of 2:08.76 in the 200 IM to win with a several second lead. Will has already qualified the in 200 IM for the State Meet.
The 50 Freestyle is the sprint event in swimming and the Miners had two Swimmers in the top 4. Colbey Stratton (24.17) finished in 2nd place, 0.01 second behind the winner while Taylor Woods (24.31) finished in 4th place 0.15 seconds behind the winner. Both swimmers had personal best times and since the provisional State Qualifying Time is 24.25, Stratton found himself qualifying and Woods found himself less than a tenth of a second away.
Stratton and Woods were in a similar situation in the 100 Freestyle finishing in 4th and 5th place. With the qualifying time of 54.39 Stratton’s time of 54.23 was good enough to make the cut and Wood’s time of 54.45 (a personal best) was painstakingly close.
Jacob Christian swam an outstanding 500 Freestyle with a time of 5:40.39, again dropping several seconds, but this time finished ahead of the qualifying mark (5:41.83) to qualify for State on his way to a 4th place finish.
It was the 200 Girls Freestyle Relay that had coaches excited. The team of Sweeney, Mariela Canisales, Raya Woods, and Apuron swam a season best time of 1:58.99 to get under the provisional qualifying time of 2:00.97 on their way to an 8th place finish.
In the 100 Backstroke, Apuron went on to finish 4th on short rest with a time of 1:08.90, an event she has already qualified for State in. Will Newman won the 100 Backstroke with an Automatic State Qualifying Time and School Record time of 56.70.
Sweeney finished 4th in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:17.56, an event she has already qualified for.
The Miner Boys 400 Freestyle Relay team of Stratton, Taylor Woods, Christian, and Newman won with a time of 3:33.93.
After two qualifying meets, the Miners have qualified 5 relay teams (2 Girls, 3 Boys), and 5 individuals in 13 events for the State Championship Meet. With several swimmers on the bubble, Miners hope to qualify for even more as the season progresses. Next Saturday, (Oct. 24) the Miners will attend the 1A 2A & 3A Invitational, which has become the unofficial championship meet for small high schools (3A and smaller) since the AIA reorganized the swimming divisions in 2010. The meet will begins at 1 p.m. and will held at Phoenix Country Day School.
On Thursday, Oct. 22, the Miners will travel to Sahuarita to compete against Walden Grove and Sahuarita High School at the Sahuarita Aquatic Centater. The meet begins at 4 p.m.
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.
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