The Grand County High School swimming team competed in its final big meet of the regular season at the Cedar City January Invitational on Jan. 10 and 11, where the boys placed eighth and the girls 11th – both teams were second among the 3A classification schools in attendance.
GCHS accumulated 22 personal best times at the meet, including all of the primary relay teams.
In the boys 200-yard medley, Arthur Hawks, Brendan Moore, Pat Pakkarato and Dallin Stucki placed seventh at 1:55.83. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Stryder Young, Duncan Clark, Moore and Camron Stotz placed 11th at 1:49.86. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Hawks, Stucki, Young and Pakkarato placed seventh at 3:56.96.
For the girls, Josie Wakefield, Kyla Jackman, Zoe Warren and Kiersten Kimmerle placed ninth in the 200-yard medley at 2:18.52. In the 200-yard freestyle Jackman, Mekker Relph, Zoe Campbell and Aly Bertoch placed 12th at 2:12.96. In the 400-yard freestyle Warren, Neelie Relph, Kimmerle and Wakefield placed sixth at 4:40.03.
“The kids had some really good swims,” coach Brian Pierce said. “It’s great to see such a young team perform and work together. We like swimming at these bigger meets to help gear the kids up for Region and State.”
In individual races, the boys were led by Pakkarato, finishing fourth in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:19.79, and ninth in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:10.09. Hawks placed ninth in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:06.62 and would have been 13th in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:10.04, but was disqualified from the race. Stucki placed 11th in the backstroke at 1:07.81 and 18th in the individual medley at 2:35.29. Moore placed 14th in the breaststroke at 1:13.86 and 25th in the 200-yard freestyle at 2:28.10. In the same race, Stotz placed 16th at 2:13.53.
In the 50-yard freestyle, Clark was GCHS’s top finisher at 46th with a 29.09. In the 100-yard freestyle, Ricky Shumway placed 43rd at 1:07.38, Ryder Murdock placed 52nd at 1:11.62, and Conor Duniway placed 61st at 1:17.36. Young placed 16th in the 500-yard freestyle at 6:30.53.
For the girls, Wakefield had the highest individual finish, taking eighth in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:13.52, followed by Warren in 13th at 1:17.57 and Kimmerle in 19th at 1:22.88; Warren also took 15th in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:25.18. In the breaststroke, Campbell placed 17th at 1:31.07 and Jackman would have been ninth at 1:23.87, but was disqualified.
In other races, Wakefield took 26th in the individual medley at 3:07.34; Kimmerle took 30th in the 50-yard freestyle at 31.36 and Mekker Relph took 49th at 33.05; McKenna Thorburg took 64th in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:23.72, and Julia Crane took 66th at 1:24.38; and Bertoch took 17th in the 500-yard freestyle at 7:12.42.
The Red Devils are scheduled to compete in a pair of dual meets this week, the first at Emery in Castle Dale on Thursday, Jan. 16, at 4 p.m. and the second at Carbon in Price on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 10 a.m. The Region 12 Championship will take place in Price on Thursday, Jan. 23.
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