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Miner swimmers traveled to the Small School Championship Swim Meet held at Phoenix Country Day School in Paradise Valley on Saturday, October 27.
Since the Arizona Interscholastic Association reorganized Swimming into two divisions in 2010, this meet has been known as the unofficial State Championship meet for the small schools (schools of size 1A, 2A or 3A). Miner Swimmers did well finishing with several top eight finishes at the meet.
Amara Apuron was the first Miner to finish in the top eight during the day with a seventh place finish in the girls 200 Freestyle (2:17.68). A couple of events later Wayne Newman was able to finish in sixth place in the boys 50 Freestyle (24.26), followed by Cierra Austin finishing seventh in the girls 50 freestyle (27.99).
John Bribiescas had a personal best swim of 6:24.09 in the 500 Freestyle on his way to an eighth place finish.
During the second half of the meet, the Miners really started to shine. The girls 200 Freestyle relay team of Cierra Austin, Amara Apuron, Theresa Sweeney and Nicole Primero finish fourth with a new school record time of 1:56.22.
Andy Monfred finished sixth in the 100 Backstroke with a time of 1:09.58 improving his personal best swim by an amazing four seconds. Apuron was able to finish eighth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:3.57.
In 2011, Wayne Newman won the 100 Breaststroke in a very close race. This year, he entered as the number one seed against the same competitor from Sedona Red Rock High School as well as a tough competitor from Valley Christian High School who had a seedtime between the two of them.
As is usually the case in close breaststroke races, the lead changes on every stroke depending who is gliding and who is stroking. Newman seemed to have a slight edge going into the second turn and came out with a significant lead.
A great final turn and finishing length was enough for Newman to win the race in School Record time of 1:05.47. Shortly after the race, Newman was award the Championship Medal for the 100 Breaststroke.
Cierra Austin finished sixth in the girls 100 Breaststroke with a new school record time of 1:20.34. Most importantly, for Austin was that her time met the division II state qualification provisional time standard, a time she had been very close to all season and was finally able to achieve at the final meet of the season.
The girls relay team of Apuron, Sweeney, Primero, and Austin went on to finish sixth in the 400 Freestyle Relay with a School Record time of 4:19.26.
The girls finished the meet in ninth place overall and the boys finished twelfth.
The swimmers worked all season to be at their best for this meet and the coaches were pleased with the results. Head Coach Alex Gort was proud of the way Senior Andy Monfred made the most of his final High School Swim meet.
“Andy began swimming competitively this season for the first time,” Gort said. “Each week he practiced hard, working on his conditioning and technique, and it was fitting to see that he was rewarded with a great meet, dropping large chunks of time in every race he swam, including the sixth place finish in the backstroke.”
Senior Wayne Newman has earned an automatic qualifying time for the Division 2 State Championship Meet in the 100 Breaststroke. Newman (50 Free, 200 IM, 100 Back), Apuron (500 Freestyle) and Austin (100 Freestyle, 100 Breaststroke) have earned provisional qualifying times and compete in those events at the meet.
All three of the Miners girls’ relays (200 Medley, 200 Freestyle and 400 Freestyle) have met the provisional time and hope to compete. The final list of meet qualifiers will be posted later this week.
Miner swimmers who qualified will compete at the Division II State Championship Meet at Skyline High School on Friday and Saturday (Nov 2-3).
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