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2016 Age Group State Team with their bling. (Apuron Photography)

  The Arizona Age Group State Championship Swim Meet was held March 10-13 at the Oro Valley Aquatic Center.   

  Ben Fister (10), Mason Stewart (10), Tabitha Kellam (12), Evan Apuron (12), and Riley Stewart (12) achieved qualifying times at USA Swimming sanctioned meets to allow them to compete at the meet for swimmers ages 14 and under.  Additionally, Johnny Smallhouse (9) and Ethan Kellam (10) qualified to swim on relays.   

  Swimmers were allowed to swim up to a maximum of six events at the meet, if they achieved the qualifying times.  All five of the Sea Lions who qualified did so in the maximum number of events.  The team had 18 top eight finishes and scored 345 points to finish in 11^th place (out of 41 teams) overall (combined girls and boys score).  Only large teams from the Phoenix metro area and Tucson finished ahead of the Sea Lions.  The Sea Lions finished ahead of teams from Oro Valley, Verrado, Sahuarita, New River, Surprise, Sedona, Flagstaff, Havasu, Prescott, Maricopa, and Yuma.

  At the State Championship Meet, preliminaries were held each morning.  The fastest 16 times in each event advance to the finals.  Places 9 through 16 earn a spot in the Consolation finals where they can finish no better than 9^th place.  The top 8 compete in the Championship Finals. 

  Mason Stewart earned a spot in the Championship Finals in his 50 Breaststroke, a great preliminary swim got him in the top 8 and an even faster swim in finals landed him a 7^th place finish.  In the 100 Breaststroke, Mason earned a spot in the Consolation Finals and fished 14^th overall.

Ben Fister – 2nd place Fly (9-10 boys). (Apuron Photography)

  Ben Fister secured a spot in the Championship Finals in three events, the 50 Fly, 50 Back, and 50 Free. In the 50 Fly, he earned a spot on the podium with a 2^nd place finish with a sizzling time of 31.70.  In both the 50 Free and 50 Back he finished in 5^th place, just a fraction of a second away from making the podium.  To round out his experience, Ben swam the 500 Free to a 14^th place finish, the 200 Free to a 10^th place finish and the 100 Individual Medley (IM) to a an 11^th place finish.

  Riley Stewart entered the distance freestyle events.  At Age Group Championship swimmers do not swim events 400 yards or longer in preliminaries.  All long events are only swum once in timed finals.  In an awesome 1650 yard Freestyle, Riley went over 30  seconds faster than his previous best time and finished  8^th with a time of 19:40.71. Riley also swam a tremendous 500 Freestyle and 1000 Freestyle finishing 8^th and 7^th respectively.   In the 200 Breaststroke , RIley qualified for the Championship Finals and finished 5^th.   Riley also had some great swims in the 200 Freestyle (11^th place) and 100 Breaststroke (9^th place) improving his time by several seconds in each event. 

  Tabitha Kellam also entered the distance events.  She improved her time in the 1650 by nearly 30 seconds to finish 11^th with a time of 20:14.72.  Tabitha swam a solid 1000 Freestyle to finish 12^th.  Tabitha is very good in all four strokes and it showed as she competed in all three distances of the IM.   In the grueling 400 IM she finished 9^th with a time of 5:12.45 (a full 17 seconds faster than she had ever swam before).  In the both the 100 and 200 IM she earned a spot in the Championship Finals and swam outstanding races finishing in 5^th place in the 100 IM (1:07.99) and in 6^th place in the 200 IM (2:27.24).     Tabitha also swam the tough 200 yard Breaststroke to a 13^th place finish.

Evan making the catch on his 200 Fly. (Apuron Photography)

  Evan Apuron entered all three Butterfly events (50, 100, and 200) along with all three IM distances (100, 200 and 400).  Evan finished no worse than 5^th in any event and was always in the hunt for a podium spot.  His 400 IM time of 4:51.12 was good enough for a 3^rd place finish, the first Sea Lion to make the podium at the meet.   Evan finished 4^th in the 100 IM (1:01.58) and 2^nd in the 200 IM (2:15.61).  Evan will tell you that his best event is Butterfly, and he has done well at past State Championship Meets in the Butterfly events.  Even with outstanding swims in the 50 and 100 Butterfly (27.25 and 1:00.62) his 4^th and 5^th place finishes were not what he had in mind.  The 200 Butterfly came on the final night of competition and Evan was one of the three swimmers that left the rest of the field behind.  In the final 25 yards, when the other swimmers were struggling with fatigue, Evan put on a finishing sprint that was just enough to take the race at the wall.   His state champion winning time of 2:13.92 was 5 seconds faster than he swam in prelims and 7 seconds faster than his previous best time. 

Evan with Coach Jeanine and Alex after his Championship 200 Fly finish (Apuron Photography)

  The Sea Lion 12 and Under Boys 400 Freestyle Relay team of Evan Apuron, Ben Fister, Ethan Kellam, and Riley Stewart finished in 17^th place.  The 12 and Under 400 Medley Relay team of Riley Stewart, Mason Stewart, Evan Apuron, and Ben Fister finished in 13^th place.

For the first time at an Age Group State Championship Meet, the Sea Lions had relays qualify in the top 8 and were able to swim in Finals.  The 10 and Under Boys Relay team of Ethan Kellam, Mason Stewart, Ben Fister, and Johnny Smallhouse  finished 6^th  in 200 Medley Relay with a time of  2:32.11  and the same boys on the 200 Freestyle Relay also finished 6^th with a time of 2:19.61.

  Head Coach Alex Gort was ecstatic about the performance of Sea Lions Swimmers at the meet.

  “Having every swimmer earn the opportunity to swim in the State Championship Finals at big meet like this was a great accomplishment for the team and our team score reflected the success,” Gort said.  “Ben’s 2^nd place finish in the Butterfly was a great moment as he added his name to the list of swimmers from San Manuel with top 3 finishes at State.  Evan winning the 200 Butterfly in such a dramatic fashion was truly a special moment.”

  For more information about the Sea Lions Swim Team,  contact Alex or Wendy Gort at 896-2190.

Staff (5796 Posts)

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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