Clovis swim team notches seven new records at state meet

ALBUQUERQUE — The Clovis High boys and girls swim teams added seven new school records at the state championship meet in Albuquerque this weekend, highlighted by the girls’ best finish in school history and two individual top-three finishes for James Skuse.

On the girls side, Clovis finished fourth with 213 points, behind Academy (419), La Cueva (320), Eldorado (232) and ahead of Las Cruces (178), the highest the Lady Wildcats have ever finished at the state championship.

“We’re really excited about that,” Clovis coach Vincent de Maio said. “The girls were outnumbered two to one by the teams that beat them. They’re only out of third by 21 points. At one point we kind of had a shot at it, which would have been remarkable, but just not quite there.”

Numbers also became an issue for the Wildcats on the boys side, finishing seventh with 164 points.

“We just ran out of guys,” de Maio said. “The relays did all they could, James did all he could, Case (Smith) and Ethan (Zamora), they did all they could. Six boys just can’t get there.”

Eldorado (300), Academy (272.5), La Cueva (272), Cibola (197) and Sandia (180) finished in the top five for the boys.

Skuse was Clovis’ top finisher at the meet, taking second in the 100 back with a time of :51.74 and third in the 100 free with a time of :47.35, both school records. He also set a school record in the lead-off leg of the 200 free relay with a time of :21.96.

“James was very strong,” de Maio said. “You look at the winning times, they’re automatic All-American times. So those are like top five percent in the nation, those are really, really fast times that won those two events.”

Other new school records set at the meet for the Wildcats included the girls 200 medley relay where Bella Zamora, Olivia Reeb, Katie Kelley and Anya Hammond finished second in the preliminary race on Friday with a time of 1:49.75, and the girls 400 free relay where Hammond, Reeb, Hannah Luscombe and Bella Zamora finished fourth with a time of 3:40.12.

The boys added a new school record in the 400 free relay where Skuse, Ethan Zamora, Alexis Aburto and Barrett Bryant finished fourth with a time of 3:17.15, and the 500 free where Case Smith finished third with a time of 4:49.94.

“The meet overall was very, very fast,” de Maio said. “Times that would have been top-five a year ago got you in the consolation this year. So it took a lot of fast swimming to get in and took a lot of fast swimming to get up to the top three or four.”

The Clovis girls’ only top-three finish during the finals on Saturday came in the 200 medley relay where Bella Zamora, Reeb, Kelley and Hammond finished third with a time of 1:50.18.

The Wildcats’ strong showing at the state meet capped off one of their best seasons in school history.

“A great year,” de Maio said. “It's our fastest year. As you look at swimming from beginning to end, just the steady improvement, getting faster and faster, as swimming in the state is getting faster and faster, it just requires a lot of time and dedication to keep up with it, so we’re happy to be where we are.”