ALBUQUERQUE — With small squads to work with, Clovis High swimming coach Vincent de Maio set fairly lofty goals for his teams in this weekend’s state meet at Albuquerque Academy — top five for the boys, top 10 for the girls.

They all but reached them. The Wildcats’ eight-man squad finished sixth in boys competition with 181 1/2 points, 7 1/2 points behind fifth-place Hobbs, while the four-person Lady Wildcats contingent earned the No. 10 slot in team standings with 79 1/2 points.

Eldorado took both team championships, posting 265 points to edge La Cueva (262) for the boys title and 324 points to take girls honors.

altCourtesy photo: Tommie Smith
Clovis High senior Brock Smith, shown in Friday’s 200-yard individual medley preliminaries, broke school records on Saturday in the 200 individual medley and the 100 backstroke in state competition at Albuquerque Academy. Smith’s second-place finish in the backstroke finals was the best in the history of the program.

 

Highlighting the Clovis boys performance was a second-place finish by sophomore Everett Ward in the 500-yard freestyle, which broke the school record he set Friday with a time of four minutes, 54.37 seconds, and a third by senior Brock Smith in the 100 backstroke with a time of 54.63 seconds. Smith also set the school mark in Friday’s prelims.

“Both these guys had fantastic swims,” de Maio said. “From the district meet through (Friday’s) prelims to the finals, they’ve gotten faster and faster.”

Ward led a strong 500 freestyle event for the Cats, with Paden Simms placing sixth in 5:01.42 and Ethan Gallegos 11th in 5:16.11

“The 500 guys really got us going,” de Maio said. “We’re looking for great things from Everett in the future. The second-place finish was the best we’ve ever had.

“Hobbs won the medley relay, and that was pretty much the difference (in the team standings). But I’m extremely pleased; for eight guys, it was a great state meet.”

Smith also broke his day-old school record in the 200 individual medley, where he was seventh in 2:03.69.

For the girls, junior Madison Silveira had the highest finish, a sixth in the 200 individual medley in which she broke her day-old school mark with a time of 2:14.19.

Silveira added a sixth-place finish in the 100 backstroke (1:00.34), three-hundreths of a second off her school mark set Friday. Also for the Lady Cats, junior Caitlin Dial was seventh in the 100 freestyle (55.41) and eighth in the 200 freestyle (2:02.61).

“We were a little bit flat at the start today, but as the meet went on we got better,” de Maio said of the girls.

He said the girls will add depth next year, while the boys should continue to improve.

“It’s a good way to end the season,” de Maio said. “Our goal (at state) is always to be able to break some school records, and we did that.”

STATE SWIM MEET

Friday, Saturday

At Albuquerque Academy

Saturday’s finals

Note: Top eight from prelimaries swam in championship finals, second eight in consolation finals

BOYS

Team scores: 1. Eldorado 265; 2. La Cueva 262; 3. Rio Rancho 252; 4. Albuquerque Academy 204 1/2; 5. Hobbs 181 1/2; 6. Clovis 174; 7. Las Cruces 157 1/2; 8. Albuquerque High 111 1/2; 9. Cibola 106; 10. Los Alamos 96 1/2; 11. West Mesa 82 1/2; 12. St. Pius 65; 13. Rio Rancho Cleveland 53; 14. Del Norte 50; 15. Sandia Prep 47; 16. Sandia 44; 17. Volcano Vista 31; 18. Carlsbad 29; 19. Alamogordo 24; 20. Valley 18; 21. Bosque 12; 22. New Mexico Military 7; 23. (three-way tie) Artesia, Piedra Vista and St. Michael’s 6; 26. Santa Fe High 4; 27. Highland 2; 28. Santa Fe Prep 1.

Clovis results

200 medley relay: 7. Brock Smith, Case Schaap, Everett Ward, Lucas Elton 1:42.83. 200 freestyle: 8. Ward 1:50.38. 200 individual medley: 7. Smith 2:03.79 (SR); 13. Schaap 2:01.37. 100 freestyle: 10. Chad Elton 50.55. 500 freestyle: 2. Ward 4:54.37 (SR); 6. Paden Sims 5:01.42; 11. Ethan Gallegos 5:16.11. 200 freestyle relay: 5. C. Elton, Schaap, Jon McCormick, L. Elton 1:33.57. 100 backstroke: 3. Smith 54.63 (SR); 11. Schaap 57.11. 400 freestyle relay: 6. Ward, C. Elton, Simms, Smith 3:22.22.

GIRLS

Team scores: 1. Eldorado 324; 2. Albuquerque Academy 260; 3. Las Cruces 200; 4. Sandia 197; 5. La Cueva 189; 6 . Los Alamos 170 1/2; 7. St. Michael’s 117; 8. Rio Rancho 115; 9. Albuquerque High 110; 10. Clovis 79 1/2; 11. St. Pius 77; 12. Rio Rancho Cleveland 72; 13. Cibola 67; 14. Alamogordo 65; 15. Volcano Vista 63; 16. Bosque 36; 17. (tie) Del Norte and Hope Christian 28; 19. Desert Acdemy 25; 230. Rio Grande 24; 21. Carlsbad 14; 22. Hobbs 12; 23. Manzano 5; 24. Valley 2.

Clovis results

200 freestyle: 8. Caitlin Dial 2:02.61; 14. Gabby Carrasco 2:06.30. 200 individual medley: 6. Madison Silveira 2:14.19 (SR). 100 freestyle: 7. Dial 55.41. 200 freestyle relay: 9. Dial, Carrasco, Jayci Nigreville, Silveira 1:45.98. 100 backstroke: 6. Silveira 1:00.34. 400 freestyle relay: 12. Silveira, Carrasco, Nigreville, Dial 3:54.31.

SR — school record.