BY SANDY HURLOCKER
Hilltopper Swim and Dive
The Hilltopper Swim and Dive team kicked off 2025 with a strong showing at the Scorp Invite in Farmington last weekend: the girls took first place (532 pts.) in front of second place
Farmington (368 pts.) and third place Rio Rancho (277 pts.). The boys (438 pts.) came in a very
close second to Farmington (449.5 pts.) and ahead of Rio Rancho (287 pts.).
“During the break we had a very hard two weeks of practice,” said Head Coach Pat Brug. “In
Farmington the team did a great job, with 19 best swims of the season. Considering we are in
our hardest training cycle of the season, those times are a bonus.”
The girls won their first big meet of the season on the strength of sweeping the three relay
events (200 Medley, 200 and 400 Freestyle) on top of a number of very good individual swims.
The girls team showed depth, placing three swimmers in the top five in the 200 Freestyle
(Grace Nowell, Catherine Price, Deb Brug) and the 500 Freestyle (Grace Nowell, Sophia Pieck,
Grace Evans). In the 100 Breaststroke, the team leaned in even more with four of the top five
places (Michelle Lo, first; Sophia Pieck, second; Alma Hurlocker, fourth; Grace Evans, fifth).
Other individual efforts showed Allie Holland and Deb Brug dropping more than 2 seconds off
their 100 Backstroke times. Nuala Colgan dropped a second from hers. Allie Holland also
dropped more than 2 seconds off her 100 Butterfly, enough to make a state qualifying time.
For her first place efforts, Grace Nowell dropped a second from her 200 Freestyle and 5
seconds in her 500 Freestyle. Julia Zou dominated her heat and had a season best 50 Freestyle
of 30.42 seconds.
The boys were powered by first place finishes in two of the three relays (Medley and 400
Freestyle), as well as first and second places in the 200 Freestyle (William Borovina, Takeshi
Shiina), the 500 Freestyle (Thomas Daligault, Zach Sestric), and 100 Backstroke (Zane Pedersen,
William Borovina). Thomas Daligault dropped almost 2 seconds in his 100 Breaststroke and
finished first by over 6 seconds!
Asher Koh brough home a first place in the diving competition, improving his score by more
than 5 points , to 225.70 points.
Along with Allie Holland’s state cut, other State Qualifiers include William Borovina (50 and 200
Freestyle), Sophia Pieck (500 Freestyle), Thomas Daligault (500 Freestyle), and Zane Pedersen
(10
0 Backstroke).
“One swimmer I want to recognize is Ian Corey,” said Coach Brug. “He capped off a great season with a superb 50 backstroke leg in the Medley relay and had a solid anchor of the 400
Freestyle relay. Ian will have season ending knee surgery this week, and I want to thank him for
being here and wish him the best.” Ian will be diving for WashU in St. Louis next year and was
the first Topper to medal in both diving and swimming at state (2024).
Next up for the team will be at Albuquerque Academy on Jan. 11.