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Rebecca Head competes in a home meet. Maryssa Sanchez| SMHS
Colbey Stratton competes in a home meet. Brayan Muniz | SMHS
The Miner Swimmers hosted a three way meet against Veritas Preparatory School and Arizona College Preparatory School on Thursday, Sept. 10. The final scores for the Girls teams were: Arizona College Prep 100, Veritas Prep 73, and San Manuel 49. The Miner Boys won a very close meet: San Manuel 97, Arizona College Prep 95, and Veritas Prep 15.
Wins were tough to obtain for the Miner Girls. Even though Miner swimmers were battling for first place in most events, it was Freshman Darien Apuron that won the only race for the Miners. Her 200 Individual Medley (IM) against some quality opponents showed just how good of an all- around swimmer Apuron is. The following Miners had second place finishes at the meet: Senior Rebekah Head, Sophomore Elyssia Aguilar, Sophomore Raya Woods, Freshman Gianna Sweeney and Darien Apuron. The meet was much closer than the score indicated and Coach Alex Gort is confident that Miners will start winning the close races later in the season based on the work ethic he sees in practice.
The Boys Team won 7 out of the 11 races (which included 2 out of the 3 relays) but because of the team depth of Arizona College Prep, the meet was not decided until the final relay. Arizona College Prep showed their strength by finishing first and second in the opening event, the Medley Relay. The Miners came back by winning the 200 IM and 50 Freestyle. Sophomore Will Newman won the 200 IM by a large margin, then Junior Colbey Stratton won the always close 50 Freestyle by 7 one hundredths of a second.
After the diving break, a swimmer from Veritas Prep won the 100 Butterfly. Then the Miners hit the portion of the meet where they shined, not just winning, but finishing 1st and 3rd in the next three individual events, giving the Miners the lead for the first time in the meet. Senior Jacob Christian won the 100 Freestyle while Freshman Michael Primero-Predgo finished 3rd. In the 400 Freestyle, Will Newman won as Junior Robert Sweeney finished 3rd. Senior Taylor Wood won the 100 Backstroke while Primero-Predgo finished 3rd.
The Miners easily won the 200 Freestyle relay, but because of the depth of the Arizona College Prep team (finishing 2nd and 3rd) were outscored in the event. Arizona College Prep took a 1-2 finish in the Breaststroke jumping to an 83-79 lead with only the 400 Freestyle Relay remaining. For the Miners, this meant that they would have to finish at least 1st and 3rd to win the meet. The Miners A Relay team of Stratton, Christian, Woods, Will Newman easily won the relay while the B Relay of Sweeney, Primero-Predgo, Junior Michael Garcia, and Senior Alec Newman finished in 3rd place, sealing the victory for the Miners.
Miner swimmers had a home meet on Tuesday, Sept. 22, against North (Phoenix) High School and Walden Grove (Sahuarita) High School. Results from this meet were not available at press time. The next meet will be held in San Manuel on Tuesday, Sept. 29, against Immaculate Heart High School, beginning at 4 p.m.
Andrew Luberda began writing for Copper Area News Publishers (CANP) in February 2013 after working 15 years in Healthcare Financial Management. Andy covers sports for 11 high schools. His stories are published in Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner and Superior Sun, in addition to the San Tan Valley Daily PRSS and CopperArea websites. Additionally, he has written human interest stories and business profiles. In May 2012, he earned an AAS in Sports Management at Central Arizona College before graduating with a BS in Communication from Arizona State University in 2014. He and his wife, Kelli, have three sons – AJ, Kyle, and Kade.
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