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On Thursday, Oct. 1, the Miner Swimmers traveled to Marana High School to compete in a three way meet against Salpointe Catholic High School and Marana High School. While they didn’t manage to win the meet, they did gain some valuable experience. The final scores for the women’s teams were: Salpointe 161, Marana 82, and San Manuel 56. The men’s scores were: Salpointe 147, San Manuel 85, and Marana 70.
Salpointe is one of the powerhouse schools in swimming, and swimming against them at this point in the season gave the Miners some great experience. Winning any events against a team of that caliber is a great achievement. The Miners were able to win 4 events at the meet. Sophomore Will Newman won both the 200 Individual Medley and 100 Backstroke. Freshman Gianna Sweeney won the 100 Breaststroke. The 400 Freestyle Relay team of Junior Colbey Stratton, Senior Taylor Woods, Senior Jacob Christian, and Will Newman won against some very good teams.
The Miners had some remarkable swims at the meet. Freshman Darien Apuron set a school record of 2:32.35 in the 200 Individual Medley, breaking the record held by her older sister Amara set in 2013. Will Newman shaved a few hundredths of a second off his 100 Backstroke record with a time of 56.94 to better the time he sat at the State Championship Meet last year. The Medley Relay team of Will Newman (Backstroke), Taylor Woods (Breaststroke), Colbey Stratton (Butterfly) and Jacob Christian (Freestyle) swam faster than any team in school history breaking the record set last year by Newman, Woods, Stratton and Robert Sweeney by more than 1 second.
The Miners continued their success in the Boys 400 Freestyle Relay. They have won it at every meet this year and winning against Salpointe took their best effort. Stratton, Woods, Christian and Newman all swam personal best relay legs to shatter the School Record by over 5 seconds with a time of 3:33.78. Since this event is always the final event of every meet, a win says a lot about the grit and toughness of the Miners.
Coach Alex Gort was excited with the meet results. “We had many great swims, and our 400 Freestyle Relay win in School Record time was the icing on the cake,” he said.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, the Miners will travel to the Udall Pool in Tucson to face Sahuaro and Tucson High Schools at 4 p.m. On Saturday, Oct. 10, the Miners are scheduled to compete in the Saturday Night Fever Swim Meet at Chandler High School against 24 other teams from throughout Arizona.
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