BY SANDY HURLOCKER
Hilltopper Swim and Dive
In mid-January, the Hilltopper Swim/Dive team competed twice in less than a week, first at the Academy Invite on January 9 and 10, then back to Academy on Jan 13 for the Academy Quad.
“We scheduled the Quad to practice for the prelims-finals formats we have coming up later this month,” said head coach Pat Brug.
Those include Districts and State.
“We practiced how to swim fast in finals,” Coach Brug said, adding “Everyone did a great job!”
In the 27th Annual Academy Invite, 25 schools from around the state sent 500 swimmers to compete. The girls placed third behind Academy and Clovis. The boys finished 13th.
Three days later, four teams squared off in a much quieter Academy Natatorium. Both girls and boys placed second behind Academy, ahead of Taos and Bosque School.
“On Saturday we had 46 individual swims, with 31 personal bests and/or best swims of the season,” Coach Brug noted.
Two individual performances stood out: Grace Nowell swam a personal best 500 Freestyle (5:21.49), taking first place with the fastest time in New Mexico high school this year by 3 seconds. She also dropped nearly a second off her 200 Freestyle in a second-place finish.
The other stand out performance came from Michelle Lo, who placed third in the 100 Butterfly by swimming her season best by 1.5 second, which is also the third fastest time in the state so far this season. She also dropped 2 seconds from her 100 Breaststroke time, placing fourth with a state qualifying time.
In the relays, the Girls 200 Freestyle relay (Samantha Clayton, Lyla Lo, Anna Kerstiens, Michelle Lo) took third. The Girls 400 Freestyle relay (Emma Riede, Catherine Price, Grace Nowell and Deb Brug) took fourth place, swimming well under state cut time.
Other notable time drops came from Emilie Daligault and Grace Evans, who gained 3.6 and 2.8 sec respectively in the 200 Individual Medley (IM). Samantha Clayton dropped more than 7 seconds in her 100 Butterfly.
Coach Brug noted the top five swims:
Catherine Price: fifth in Girls 200 Freestyle, just a half second above a state qualifying time
Thomas Daligault: fourth in Boys 200 Freestyle with a state cut
Teagan Brown: third in Girls Diving
Steven Yeamans: fourth in Boys Diving
Ammon Lee: fifth in Boys 100 Freestyle
Sonya Pakin: fourth in Girls 100 Backstroke
Other state cut times outside the top five were Alma Hurlocker, who placed ninth in the IM with a state qualifying time, and Thomas Deligault who placed seventh in the 100 Breaststroke with a state cut.
Coach Brug also praised how the eighth-grade swimmers showed great progress:
Lyla Lo dropped 0.9 sec in her 100 Freestyle (1:02.48) and is the 8th grader closest to a state cut time
Ashley McLaughlin took 8 seconds off her 200 Freestyle
Liam Corey dropped 9 sec off his 100 fly and 1 sec off his 50 Freestyle to go a 28.78
Santiago Tucker and James Petty both dropped 0.7 s off their 50 Freestyle
Santiago also dropped 1.4 sec off his 100 Backstroke and James got his best 100 Backstroke by 0.7 sec
Joshua McLaughlin got his best 50 Freestyle and dropped nearly 2 sec off his 100 Backstroke
On Tuesday a smaller squad came back to Academy for the Quad. Coach Brug noted the girls had 4 of the 5 top point scorers of the meet: Grace Nowell. Sonya Pakin, Anna Kerstiens, and Grace Evans led the way. Top boys were Sam Nowell, Peter Maginot and Gus Marchand.
The best swims of the meet came in the 100 Freestyle, where Anna Kerstiens dropped more than 2 seconds, won the event, and nearly qualified for state with 59.43. Emma Riede dropped 0.6 sec, placed second and nearly broke a minute with a time of 1:00.26. Grace Evans and Alma Hurlocker both dropped over 0.5 second in their 100 Breaststroke for season best swims and placed first and third respectively.
“Anna’s 100 Free was a breakout swim for her. She has been improving steadily all season, but I was so happy to see such a big time drop before the end-of-season taper. Emma (a senior) is already more than 2 seconds faster in the 100 Free than last year!” said Coach Brug.
Sam Nowell placed second in the 100 Freestyle, with a time of 52.55, near a state cut, his first swim under 53 seconds.
“That was an impressive swim,” said Coach Brug.
Coach Brug noted the other top three swims and State Qualifying Swims:
Sonya Pakin: first in Girls 200 IM-with a state cut, and second in the Girls 100 Backstroke
Grace Nowell: first place in both the 200 Freestyle and 500 Freestyle
Catherine Price: second in Girls 200 Freestyle
Sam Nowell: second in the 50 Freestyle
Gus Marchand: second in the Boys 100 Backstroke
Anna Kerstiens: third in 50 Freestyle
Peter Maginot: third in Boys 50 Freestyle and the 100 Freestyle
Ashley McLaughlin: third place in the Girls 500 Freestyle
In the relays, the Girls 400 Freestyle Relay took first place with a state cut- (Emma Riede, Anna Kerstiens, Grace Nowell, Grace Evans). The Girls 200 Med Relay (Sonya Pakin, Grace Evans, Alma Hurlocker, Emma Riede) placed second as did the Boys 400 Freestyle Relay-(Sam Nowell, Peter Maginot, Gus Marchand, Santiago Tucker). The Boys 200 Freestyle Relay placed third (Sam Nowell, Josh McLaughlin, Peter Maginot, William Champenois).
The team returned to Academy on January 24 for the Tom Casey Memorial.