Evan Apuron and Riley Stewart. Photo courtesy Apuron Photography
On March 8-11, the Age Group State Championship Meet was held at the Oro Valley Aquatic Center for Swimmers 14 years old and younger. Eight members of the Sea Lions Swim Team competed. Ethan Kellam (12), Mason Stewart (12), Joey Castellanos (12), Ben Fister (12), Tabitha Kellam (14), Evan Apuron (14), AJ Lopez (14) and Riley Stewart (14) achieved qualifying times at USA Swimming sanctioned meets to allow them to compete at the meet. The Sea Lions finished in 15th place (out of 41 teams in Arizona) with a total of 287 points.
The 12 year old boys (Ben, Mason, Ethan, Joey) were solid for the Sea Lions in 4 relays (200 Free, 200 Medley, 400 Free and 400 Medley), finishing no worse than 12th place and as high as 10th place, a very good result for a team from a community our size. The 200 Free Relay achieved a new team record time of 1:58.14 and the 200 Medley Relay achieved a new team record time of 2:12.85.
Mason swam personal best times on his way to 18th place in the 400 IM, 24th place in the 100 IM and 28th place in the 100 Breaststroke.
Ethan finished in 12th place in the grueling 1650 yard Freestyle.
After swimming Relays at last year’s State Championship, AJ Lopez gained valuable experience this year competing in 6 individual events which is the maximum allowed. AJ had finishes of 23rd (100 Breaststroke), 31st (400 IM), 36th (100 Backstroke, 50 Freestyle, 200 IM) and 47th (100 Butterfly).
Swimmers who finish in the top 16 places in preliminaries each morning advance to finals in the evening. Ben Fister, Tabitha Kellam, Evan Apuron and Riley Stewart each had several swims in finals.
Tabitha swam to a 12th place finish in the 200 Freestyle and 16th in the 200 IM.
Ben Fister earned a place in the finals in four events. He finished in 4th place in the 50 Butterfly, 6th in the 100 IM, 9th in the 100 Fly and 9th in the 50 Freestyle with a new team record time of 26.07.
Riley Stewart had an exciting weekend finishing in the top 8 in every event he entered. Riley finished 2nd in the 100 Breaststroke in a time of 1:01.66 (a new team record), and narrowly missed being the State Champion by only 1/100th of a second. Riley also achieved some big swimming milestones at the meet. In his 500 Freestyle, he broke the 5 minute barrier with a time of 4:58.78 on his way to a 4th place finish (another team record). In the 200 Freestyle, he broke the 1:50 Barrier with a time of 1:49.44 on his way to a 6th place finish (yet another team record). He had an outstanding time of 2:04.46 in the 200 IM on his way to a 7th place finish against a very strong field. In the 1000 Freestyle, Riley improved his best time (and team record) by nearly 20 seconds with a time of 10:23.18.
The 13-14 Boys 200 Breaststroke was a special moment for the team. Riley finished 3rd and Evan finished 2nd to put two Sea Lions on the podium.
Evan Apuron swam so well that he was on the podium after every one of his 6 races. In addition to the 200 Breaststroke, he finished 2nd in the 200 IM in a time of 1:59.72 breaking the 2 minute mark (and the team record). Evan had four – 3rd place finishes, all of which were team records: 100 Butterfly (52.42), 100 Freestyle (48.69), 200 Butterfly (1:58.45), and 400 IM (4:19.00).
Evan has achieved Western Sectional Championship (Western ¼ of the United States) Qualifying times and is scheduled to competed Thursday and Friday (March 22-23) at Phoenix Country Day School.
Coach Alex Gort beamed with pride on accomplishments of the Sea Lions.
“I am so proud of the team. We had an awesome season and the accomplishments at the State Championship Meet were a great finish to the season,” he said.
Sea Lions will begin summer team practice at the Mammoth Pool on April 2nd. Practice times will be 4-5:30 p.m. Monday – Friday. Registration will cost $45 and can be completed at any practice. Forms are available on the Sea Lions web site sealionsswimteam.com. More information is available by calling Alex or Wendy Gort at 896-2190 or stopping by the Mammoth Pool during practice.