By Anna Bryner
The Carbon High School swim team began its season last week with a double duel on Thursday against Richfield and Payson and an invitational at Cedar City throughout Friday and Saturday.
The girls’ team won against both Richfield and Payson, scoring 123 points against Payson’s 32 and finishing with 102 against Richfield’s 68. The boys’ team defeated Payson 97-62, but fell to Richfield 62-107.
Each of three girls’ relays clinched a first place finish. The 200 medley relay team was composed of Suparada Chaobol, Sadie Crompton, Veronica Ibanez and Susannah Ohlwiler. The 200 freestyle relay was made up of Kaisha Lott, Heidi Prettyman, Crompton and Addy Olson. The 400 freestyle relay included Chaobol, Ohlwiler, Prettyman and Ibanez.
The girls’ team also saw lots of success in individual events. Ibanez finished in first in the 100 butterfly by more than ten seconds and also finished first in the 500 freestyle. In the 100 freestyle, Ohlwiler finished in first place while Olson finished in second. Olson also took second place in the 200 freestyle. In the 100 backstroke, Lott finished in second. In the 100 breaststroke, Crompton captured second place.
The boys’ 400 freestyle relay also took first place, made up of Tyson Swasey, Kaden Earl, Ryan Atwood and Joseph Keller. Individually, the boys’ team also had some strong finishes. Keller took first place in the 200 freestyle and second in the 100 breaststroke. Earl was another to earn a first place, finishing at the top in the 50 freestyle. In the 100 Freestyle, Swasey took second place.
Heading into Thursday’s meet, head coach Kamra Davis was not sure what kind of a performance she would see from her team.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect,” said Davis. “Sometimes they practice one way, then (swim) in the meet and totally blow your mind. That’s exactly what happened.”
More than half of the team this year is composed of new swimmers. However, according to Davis, the new swimmers have learned quickly.
“We had swimmers that we taught from scratch how to swim that ended up placing rather high in the meet,” she said. “On the other side, our veteran swimmers did not disappoint me. They swam well also.”
During the weekend invitational in Cedar City, the team competed against eight teams with school sizes ranging from 2A to 4A. Despite the tough competition, the girls’ team placed fourth overall and the boys’ team placed sixth.
Each of the three girls’ team relays had strong finishes.The girls’ 200 medley relay placed fourth out of 18 relay teams, taking two seconds off their previous time from Thursday’s meet. The girls’ 200 freestyle relay placed sixth out of 16 teams and the girls’ 400 freestyle relay placed sixth out of 14 teams.
In girls’ individual events, Ibanez placed second overall in the 100 butterfly out of nine swimmers and eighth in the 200 freestyle out of 31 swimmers. In the 50 freestyle race, Chaobol finished in ninth with a personal best, while Olson finished in tenth and Lott finished in 15th out of the 72 swimmers in the event. In the 100 freestyle, Prettyman finished in 16th with a new personal best. In the 100 backstroke, Olson finished in tenth out of 30 swimmers. In the 100 breaststroke, Crompton finished in fourth with Lott in eighth out of 28 swimmers.
The boys’ team had some difficulty in their first relay, placing tenth overall in the 200 medley relay. The boys’ 200 freestyle relay placed fifth out of 19 teams.
In boys’ individual events, Swasey placed 12th in the 200 freestyle out of 29 swimmers, setting a new personal best. Earl placed tenth and set a personal best in the 50 freestyle, while Atwood finished in 29th and Connor Holyoak finished 30. In the 100 freestyle, three Carbon boys earned new personal bests: Keller placed sixth, Swasey placed 12th and Earl finished in 13th. In the 100 breaststroke, Keller finished sixth out of 35 swimmers.
Davis said the team will continue to work on turns, wall streamlines and endurance. She also said the team will need swimmers to step up with their butterfly strokes. “(Butterfly) is one of the hardest strokes, so I will really be focusing on (it),” she said.
The team’s next meet will be at Uintah on Nov. 21. Although it was originally scheduled as a home meet, the meet will be hosted at Uintah because of various problems with Carbon’s indoor pool that have required it to be drained and fixed. The team and coaches would like to thank Emery for hosting their meet on Thursday against Richfield and Payson. Coach Davis anticipates the team will be practicing and hosting meets in the indoor pool again after Thanksgiving.
