JV swimmers outscore Snohomish
By JOHN GALBREATH Sports Editor
Stanwood’s junior varsity boys’ swim team scored 266 points in the WesCo North Junior Varsity Championships over the weekend and, by doing so, edged out the Panthers of Snohomish by one point (265) and placed third behind Marysville-Pilchuck and Lake Stevens as a result.
Freshman Kevin Escobar dropped three and a half seconds in his 100 backstroke to qualify for the district meet this coming week. Aaron Rice took four seconds off his 100 back and over two seconds off his 100 free to clock a :58.4 and score a combined 30 points. Rice will also move on to the district meet to help the team in the relays.
“This was our last-chance meet for kids to earn a spot in the district meet,” said co-coach Nancy Rink. “The Western Conference is very competitive this year, and we thought there were going to be a lot of slots open for the JV championship swimmers to advance because of the fast district-qualifying times, but they were not.”
“Seventeen of the 21 kids we took to swim in this JV championship meet had never swum competitively before this season,” Rink said. “We are really proud of their accomplishments.
“In addition, we had 21 career-best times including a 17-second drop from Andrew Stahl in the 200 freestyle swim to score nine team points, and a 5-second drop in his 100 free. Aaron Sandquist dropped 13 seconds in his 500 free along with a 23-second drop for Tanner Nieman in his 500 free.
“Both Tanner and Aaron asked to swim the 500. They scored a combined 17 points to help us get that third place over Snohomish. These two are cross country runners and are cross training through the winter to stay in shape for track this spring. It will be great to see them next year now that they know the swimming basics.”
Local results for the JV championships were:
• 200 Medley Relay: 2nd: Kenny Fenley, Kevin Escobar, Austin Wehr, Aaron Rice (2:01); 9th: Josh Schuh, Casey O’Heren, Bo Luce, Santo Aldapa (2:10); 14th: Lance Belanger, Aaron Sandquist, Nathan Beykovsky, Jonah Williams (2:24).
• 200 Free: 9th: Andrew Stahl (2:28); 11th: Wehr (2:32); 17th: Tanner Nieman (2:39); 18th: Skylar Wright (2:40); 20th: Logan Krohn (2:41).
• 200 Individual Medley: 7th: Casey O’Heren (2:51); 10th: Nathan Beykovsky (2:56);
•50 Free: 8th: Fenley (26.8); 26th: Aldapa (28.8); 29th: Luce (29.5); 32nd: Chaz Padon (29.8); 33rd: Jonah Williams (30.2); 41st: Lance Belanger (31.3); 50th: Earnest Borthwick (33.2); 51st: Gunnar Guddal (33.3); 62nd: Shawn Kelley (44.2).
• 100 Butterfly: 3rd: Wehr (1:12); 5th: Luce (1:18).
•100 Free: 4th: Rice (58.4); 17th: Stahl (1:05); 23rd: Aldapa (1:07); 27th: Shane Finnerty (1:08); 28th: Wright (1:09); 36th: Williams (1:12); 41st: Padon (1:15); 49th: Kelley (1:41).
•500 Free: Nieman (7:15); 11th: Sandquist (7:25).
•200 Free Relay: 14th: Beykovsky, Schuh, Guddal, Belanger (2:08); 19th: Kelley, Finnerty, Borthwick, Nieman (2:22).
• 100 Backstroke: 1st: Escobar (1:08); 3rd: Fenley (1:13); 4th: Rice (1:14); 13th: Schuh (1:22); 14th: Belanger (1:26).
• 400 Free Relay: 3rd: Escobar, Wehr, Rice, Fenley (4:07); 10th: Aldapa, Luce, O’Heren, Wright (4:37).
“The season is over for most of these guys,” Coach Wiper said. “We hope they had a fun season and their success will help them look forward to next year so they can continue their progress.”
“We are looking to our district meet this week. We have an experienced team competing this year including James McCune and Tyler Swanson, 4-year district swimmers, Tim Hammer, Matt Roe and Hayden Giesbrecht, who have three years of experience, Justin Murrell and Cole Farnsworth in their second year and then there are the rookie district swimmers Aaron Rice, Cameron Chaplik, David Escobar, Jacob Land and Kevin Escobar,” the coach said.
