Toppers Swim and Dive Team Senior Girls celebrated at last weekend’s Hudsom Memorial Swim Meet are, from left, Libby Nolen, Sadie Evans, Sophia Pieck, Allie Holland, Lena Ronning, Nuala Colgan. Courtesy photo

BY SANDY HURLOCKER
Hilltopper Swim and Dive Team

On December 6 and 7, the Hilltopper Swim and Dive Team celebrated this year’s seniors while hosting the Hudson Memorial Invitational swim/dive meet. The boys took first place ahead of
Academy and Farmington. The girls placed second behind Academy and ahead of Farmington.
Strong performances by seniors led the way.

Lena Ronning led each of the girls relay squads to second place finishes (200 medley relay, 200
freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay), while placing third in the 200 IM. Sophia Pieck finished second in the 200 freestyle.

For the boys, William Borovina led the all-senior 400 freestyle relay squad to a first place finish, along with fellow seniors Ian Corey, Tyghe Tripp and Harry McKigney. Seniors Takeshi Shiina
and Zane Pederson led the boys 200 freestyle relay squad to first place, making a state cut in the effort.

Senior Asher Koh took the top spot in the diving competition.

One other first place finish came with sophomore Thomas Daligault in the boys 100
Breaststroke, with a state qualifying time.

“We had top-four finishes in almost every event, which shows the team depth and willingness to push themselves against some very solid competition,” said Head Coach Pat Brug.

Seven new meet records were set, six by visiting teams, Brug noted. In the 200 freestyle, Zane
Pederson came in second behind Academy swimmer Soren Carlson, but both swimmers beat
the meet record.

“That’s a great swim and it was already faster than last year’s state swim time,” Coach Brug
said.

Other senior team members who swam their last Topper meet at Walkup Aquatic Center are
Libby Nolen, Allie Holland, Nuala Colgan, Sadie Evans, Tyghe Tripp, and Jace Kerstiens.

Overall the Hudson Invitational saw 15 new State Qualifiers:

o Girls 200 Freestyle: Sophia Pieck

o Boys 200 Freestyle: Zane Pederson (0.1s faster than state last year)

o Girls 200 Individual Medley: – Lena Ronning, Alma Hurlocker, Sonya Pakin

o Boys 200 Individual Medley: Takeshi Shiina

o Boys 100 Butterly: Zane Pederson

o Girls 100 Freestyle: Lena Ronning (timed during relay lead off)

o Boys 100 Freestyle: Thomas Daligault

o Girls 500 Freestyle: Grace Nowell

o Girls 200 Freestyle Relay – Lena Ronning, Catherine Price, Allie Holland, Sophia Pieck

o Boys 200 Freestyle Relay(s) – Thomas, Daligault, Takeshi, Sam Nowell, Zane Pederson, Ammon Lee, Zach Sestric, Jace Kerstiens, Tyghe Tripp

o Boys 100 Backstroke: Takeshi Shiina

o Boys 100 Backstroke: Thomas Daligault

o Girls 400 Freestyle Relay: Lena Ronning, Deb Brug, Catherine Price, Sophia Pieck

“This was a great job,” said Coach Brug. “Especially since we had a super hard practice week coming off of a long Thanksgiving weekend with no swimming. I want to thank the swimmers, officials and volunteers who helped pull off this meet. It really does take a community effort to make a swim meet happen and we had compliments from every visiting team including some saying this is their favorite meet of the year! Albuquerque Academy came for the first time and came for ‘better competition!”

The meet is named after Bill Hudson, who was a PE teacher in the public schools starting in 1949 and started our swim team in 1955. He had a passion for the outdoors and exemplified the New Mexico outdoor lifestyle. Bill was also the Los Alamos cross-country coach. He came up with the idea for the Los Alamos triathlon while running the Pike’s Peak Marathon in 1974 as a way to have the cross-country and swim teams cross-train with each other.

“I personally competed with Bill at the Los Alamos Triathlon for over 12 years. And he was always sporting the latest and greatest pair of running shoes and a huge smile,” said Coach Brug. “There is no better way to honor Bill than by having a great swim meet where we all work hard, push each other to our physical limits and have great fun doing it.”

Bill died in 2015.