CHS swimmers get taste of pool for state meet

ALBUQUERQUE — Saturday’s Tom Casey Memorial Invite swim meet, hosted by Albuquerque Academy, wasn’t exactly what Clovis High co-coach Gordy Westerberg had in mind.

In normal meets, he said, teams may have two or three entries in a relay and four individuals per event. This meet restricted teams to one relay and two individuals per event.

“My original plan was to focus on the relays and put kids in one individual race, most likely an ‘off’ race — one they normally don’t get to swim — so there went my plan out the window,” Westerberg said. “A meet like this heavily favors teams that have 2-3 high-level state swimmers. We aren’t there yet.”

Clovis finished ninth on the boys side and 10th for the girls in the 10-school competition. Los Alamos won the boys division with 373 points to 281 for Eldorado, while Academy took girls team honors with 400 points to 386 for Los Alamos.

Westerberg said Clovis highlights included:

• Season-best times for freshman Julia Spears in the 100 butterfly (1:06.00) and 100 breaststroke (1:19.31)

• A personal-best time of 1:12.97 for sophomore David Reeb in the 100 breaststroke

• “Excellent times” in the 100 backstroke for sophomores Porter Kidd (1:02.22) and Kriday Andiboina (1:04.90) for the boys and junior Chara May (1:12.10) for the girls

• The boys 200 freestyle relay team of junior Clayton Hogan, junior Thomas Palla, Reeb and Kidd cut about a half-second off their previous best with a state-qualifying mark of 1:37.17

• Hogan swam a near-qualifying time and personal-best 23.70 leading off the boys 200 freestyle relay

• Junior Wesley Buck dropped nine seconds off his previous best time in the boys 200 freestyle (2:14.96)

• Sophomore Matthew Del Toro beat his previous best in the boys 100 butterfly (1:06.42), and

• Freshman Steen North broke the 1-minute barrier for the first time in the boys 100 freestyle (58.72).

“The results are very deceptive,” Westerberg said. “All in all, it was a good meet for us and a chance to swim in the state meet facility.”

Clovis swimmers head for District 3/4 competition on Saturday at Artesia. The state meet at Academy is set for Feb. 18-19.