Cory Liechty, Katherine Elton, Maddie Ovaska, and Meredith McBranch won medals for their 200 free relay performance at the state high school meet Feb. 22-23 at Albuquerque Academy. Courtesy photo

LAHS junior Ian Jaegers broke the Toppers’ team record for the 100 backstroke with 53.62 and also placed 6th in the 100 free. Courtesy photo

HILLTOPPERS SWIMMING AND DIVING NEWS

 The Los Alamos Hilltoppers swimming and diving teams finished their 2018-19 campaign at the state championships at Albuquerque Academy February 22-23.

The Los Alamos boys and girls teams finished 2^nd and 8^th respectively. The boys team standings featured the closest top three teams in at least 12 years. La Cueva scored 280 points, while the Hilltoppers tallied 276. Host Academy was third with 272.5 points.

The boys were tied for the lead with La Cueva – and very narrowly ahead of Academy – going into the meet’s final event. In a season-ending nail-biter, senior co-captain Nick Berndt touched out Academy by 0.17 seconds to secure the second-place team trophy for the Toppers.

All six relays – three of each gender – advanced safely to the “A” Final for the first time since 2010. By swimming rules, relays score double the points of an individual event.  Two long-standing Los Alamos High School team records were broken.

Freshman Orion Henderson clocked 1:56.32 in the 200 IM to break Matt Walters’ record of 1:57.80 set in February 1988.

Junior Ian Jaegers’ 53.62 in the 100 back eclipsed Will Clay’s 53.64 school mark from February 2001.

Top performances for the Toppers included third place finishes by senior co-captain Jillian Bennett (100 breast), freshman Orion Henderson (200 IM), and sophomore Daniel Fryer (1m dive).

Bennett, Henderson, Jaegers sophomore Max Corliss and each scored in two individual “A” Finals for Los Alamos.

The boys’ divers helped to propel Los Alamos to its highest boys team finish since winning in 2005.  The divers, under head diving coach Carl Cady, scored more points (48) in their one-meter dive event than any other boys’ team in a single individual event at the state meet.

2019 NMAA State Swimming and Diving Championships

February 22-23, 2019       Albuquerque Academy   Albuquerque, NM

Girls  

Team Scores: 1) Albuquerque Academy 383, 2) La Cueva 314, 3) Clovis 225, 4) Las Cruces 186, 5) Albuquerque 181, 6) Eldorado 174, 7) Sandia 126.5, 8) Los Alamos 126, 9) Rio Rancho 93, 10) Santa Fe Prep 80, 11) Cleveland 72, 12) Hope Christian 68, 13) St Pius X 45, 14) Cottonwood Classical 39.5, 15) Taos 31, 16) Sandia Prep 30, 17) Bosque School 29, 18) Santa Fe 27, 19) Carlsbad 21, 20) Belen 19, 21) Hobbs 12, 22) Cibola 11, 23) Del Norte 10, 24T) West Mesa 7, 24T) Farmington 7, 25) Valley 5

200 Medley Relay: La Cueva 1:47.79, Las Cruces 1:48.79, Academy 1:50.71; also: 8) Los Alamos 1:57.32 (Savannah Kimball, Jillian Bennett, Sophie Schmidt, Bailey Yost)

200 Free: Chrysten Pacheco LACV 1:52.09, Anya Hammond CLOV 1:55.60, Emma Kelley SPRP 1:57.88; also: 16) Cory Liechty LAHS 2:08.65, 17) Injie Mourad LAHS 2:13.86

200 IM: Allison Bernier ACAD 2:05.61, MacKenzie Jarrell ACAD 2:07.92, Emma Gehlert ELDO 2:08.01; also: 17) Katherine Elton LAHS 2:27.35

50 Free: Natalie Jones LACV 23.71, Bella Zamora CLOV 24.29, Sophia Gossum SFRP 24.43; also: 7) Jillian Bennett LAHS 25.00

1m diving:  Jessica Albanna ALBQ 469.05, Nadine Coulie ALBQ 451.25, AnneMarie Perez ACAD 410.95; also: 8) Jazmine Tuning LAHS 288.60, 11) Cyra Bishop LAHS 286.60, 12) Emme Mooday LAHS 282.40, 13) Addie Richie LAHS 277.05

100 Butterfly:  Chrysten Pacheco LACV 56.11, (tie) Alexandra Threhane CCPS 57.92, (tie) Fiona Trotz-Chavez SAND 57.92; also: 14) Sophie Schmidt LAHS 1:04.59

100 Free: Natalie Jones LACV 52.46, Sophia Gossum SPRP 52.63, Hannah Meek LACV 52.68; also: 26) Sylvia Holesinger LAHS 58.02

500 Free: Allison Bernier ACAD 4:59.30, Alexandra Threhane CCPS 5:07.07, Hannah Meek LACV 5:09.52; also: 20) Cory Liechty LAHS 5:41.90, 22) Savannah Kimball LAHS 5:44.91, 25) Injie Mourad LAHS 5:55.76

200 Free Relay:  Academy 1:38.93, La Cruces 1:39.07, La Cueva 1:40.84; also: 7) Los Alamos 1:49.18 (Maddie Ovaska, Meredith McBranch, Katherine Elton, Cory Liechty)

100 Backstroke:  Fiona Trotz-Chavez SAND 57.90, Emma Gehlert ELDO 58.13, Sierra Ortiz LCHS 59.67; also: 16) Sophie Schmidt LAHS 1:05.81, 17) Savannah Kimball LAHS 1:05.74

100 Breaststroke: Grace Gehlert ELDO 1:05.07, Grace Pino SAND 1:05.41, Jillian Bennett LAHS 1:06.38; also: 16) Katherine Elton LAHS 1:14.92

400 Free Relay:  La Cueva 3:31.78, Academy 3:36.60, Clovis 3:36.66; also: 8) Los Alamos 3:52.09 (Kamaya Ronning, Sylvia Holesinger, Sophie Schmidt, Jillian Bennett)

Boys  

Team Scores: 1) La Cueva 280, 2) Los Alamos 276, 3) Albuquerque Academy 272.5, 4) Cibola 256, 5) Cleveland 228.5, 6) Eldorado 201, 7) Las Cruces 141, 8) Albuquerque 137, 9) Sandia 113, 10) Clovis 83, 11) Volcano Vista 76, 12) Los Lunas 46, 13) Santa Fe Prep 43, 14) St Pius X 36, 15) Sandia Prep 26, 16) Rio Rancho 22, 17) Manzano 17, 18) Farmington 12, 19) Santa Fe 11, 20) Cottonwood Classical 5, 21T) Hobbs 4, 21T) Carlsbad 4, 23) Hope Christian 2

200 Medley Relay: Cleveland 1:35.58, La Cueva 1:36.42, Eldorado 1:38.01; also: 5) Los Alamos 1:40.61 (Ian Jaegers, Andy Corliss, Nick Berndt, Matias Rougier)

200 Free: Joseph Cecco SAND 1:42.39, Jamin Harlan CIBL 1:43.51, Mattia Seazzu ALBQ 1:43.57; also: 13) Konstantin Nelson LAHS 1:53.18, 14) Tavin Brogan LAHS 1:54.65

200 IM: Jack Hoagland LACV 1:48.01 (state meet record), Pierce Holler ALBQ 1:53.88, Orion Henderson LAHS 1:56.32 (team record; 1:57.34 in prelims was also high school team record, old 1:57.80 Matt Walters LAHS 1988); also: 8) Max Corliss LAHS 2:01.36, 10) Ming Lo LAHS 2:03.28, 16) Takuma Shiina LAHS 2:12.84

50 Free: Keelan Hart CIBL 20.68, Max Hawton SAND 20.76, Darien O’Donnell ELDO 20.94; also: 13) Matias Rougier LAHS 23.02, DQ Nick Berndt LAHS 22.51 (false start)

1m diving: Isaac Newman ELDO 567.60, Jake Gatten CLEV 443.80, Daniel Fryer LAHS 389.50; also: 4) Kyle Hatler LAHS 384.10, 7) Brayden Stidham LAHS 341.40, 12) Chris Koh LAHS 273.30

100 Butterfly: Darien O’Donnell ELDO 49.42, Eli Meyer CLEV 51.14, Camron Pazand CLEV 51.15; also: 15) Dylan Ma LAHS 57.07, 18) Tavin Brogan LAHS 1:00.19

100 Free:  Keelan Hart CIBL 44.72 (state meet record), Joseph Cecco SAND 46.98, Mattia Seazzu ALBQ 47.87; also: 6) Ian Jaegers LAHS 49.40, 9) Nick Berndt LAHS 49.10, 12) Matias Rougier LAHS 50.32

500 Free: Jack Hoagland LACV 4:37.92, Jackson Cotter CIBL 4:49.75, Wyatt Smith ELDO 4:50.53; also: 4) Orion Henderson LAHS 4:50.87, 9) Andy Corliss LAHS 5:05.84, 11) Konstantin Nelson LAHS 5:09.28, 21) Wayne Williams LAHS 5:48.86

200 Free Relay: Cibola 1:27.81, Academy 1:29.68, Eldorado 1:30.06; also: 6) Los Alamos 1:31.98 (Max Corliss, Dylan Ma, Andy Corliss, Matias Rougier)

100 Backstroke: Max Hawton SAND 49.57, Eli Meyer CLEV 52.19, Mario Sumali LACV 52.60; also: 7) Ian Jaegers LAHS 53.62 (high school team record, old 53.64 by Will Clay LAHS 2001), 21) Gabe Katko LAHS 1:05.88

100 Breaststroke: Pierce Holler ALBQ 56.56, Jake Hand ACAD 59.16, Kendall Southwell CLEV 59.31; also: 4) Max Corliss LAHS 1:00.08, 11) Ming Lo LAHS 1:02.38, 12) Andy Corliss LAHS 1:02.97, 16) Takuma Shiina LAHS 1:05.63

400 Free Relay: Cibola 3:11.85, La Cueva 3:12.18, Cleveland 3:12.27; also: 4) Los Alamos 3:15.77 (Orion Henderson, Max Corliss, Ian Jaegers, Nick Berndt)

Senior co-captain Jillian Bennett powered to third in the 100 breaststroke. Courtesy Photo

Los Alamos High School swim/dive team members finishing a close second to La Cueva, 280-276 in the 2019 state high school meet are, from left, Wayne Williams, Gabe Katko, Dylan Ma, Caleb Kerstiens, Nick Berndt, Orion Henderson, Matias Rougier and Tavin Brogan. Courtesy photo