STATE SWIMMING: Palo Verde boys, Gaels girls take titles; Boulder City sweeps I-A
CARSON CITY — Palo Verde boys swimming coach Brent Gonzalez had a simple piece of advice for his 400-yard freestyle relay team Saturday.
With the Panthers leading Green Valley by 12 points entering the final event of the Division I state meet at Carson Aquatic Center, Gonzalez told his Panthers to make sure they didn’t get disqualified.
“I went around to every guy and told them that we wanted to win that relay, and to swim fast once they got in the pool, but sit back on your starts a little bit,” Gonzalez said. “It was going to be close, but we just couldn’t get DQ’d.”
The Panthers sat back, swam fast and came home with a title.
Palo Verde won the event in 3 minutes, 16.13 seconds and captured the team championship with 123 points. Green Valley was second with 107.
“It was great,” Gonzalez said. “There were a couple of guys on the team who were here when we won it the last time in 2010. It was nice for them to come in and go out with a title.”
In the girls Division I meet, Bishop Gorman scored 140 points to run away from second-place Palo Verde (82) and win its fourth straight title.
Gaels senior Olivia Barker won the 200 individual medley (2:04.56) and the 100 butterfly (54.52).
“It’s very satisfying,” Gaels coach Ron Aitken said. “We want to continue the tradition we have. We had some really tough races, but we kept it up and pushed through.”
Palo Verde’s Izzy Goldsmith won the 200 freestyle (1:50.07) and 100 breaststroke (1:02.71).
Boulder City dominated both Division I-A meets, with the boys team scoring 191 points to runner-up Truckee’s 96 and the girls racking up 193 points, well clear of Truckee (97).
“We had some amazing times,” Boulder City coach Sara Carroll said. “The kids just have a lot of pride.”
Jared Smith rolled to victories in the 500 freestyle (4:31.92) and 200 freestyle (1:38.86).
“Smith swam out of his mind,” Carroll said. “Our guys would have won the Division I title, and that kind of irks them. We really would like to still be competing with the other schools.”
Joey Gebhart won the 100 backstroke in 51.38 and 100 freestyle in 46.8, and Jeremy Estes claimed the 100 butterfly (50.69) and 50 freestyle (21.18) for the Eagles.
In the girls meet, Alex Hubel won the 50 freestyle (24.13) and 100 freestyle (51.28), and Rachel Grothe captured the 100 butterfly (58.53) and 100 backstroke (1:01.97).