While the Buckaroos were not able to qualify a swimmer for last weekend's state meet, head coach Mike Owens was still happy with the performance of the squad.
"One of our goals has always been to be competitive on Friday with a chance to swim again on Saturday for an opportunity to be one of the top three that qualify for state," Owens said. "The top 16 swimmers from Friday swim again on Saturday either in the consolations or the finals. We had seven swimmers that qualified in individual events that were able to swim again on Saturday. I thought that was an amazing accomplishment by our swimmers. Of the 18 individual we swam on the first day we had 15 best times."
Johana Christensen finished fourth in the 50-yard freestyle with a personal-best time of 25.34 seconds, which was .53 seconds from third and qualifying for state. The senior also finished fifth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:02.95.
"Johana has expressed an interest in swimming in college at UNR," said the coach. "I believe she has the heart and desire to continue her swim career and look forward to hearing about her successes as she continues swimming. She is an amazing swimmer and will do well in whatever she does. Johana was and will always be one of the most natural swimmers I have ever had the pleasure of coaching."
Jessie Pate qualified for the A final in the 50-yard freestyle and finished eighth in a time of 24.05. In the preliminary race he set a career-best time of 23.96. In the 100-yard butterfly, he was fourth in the B final and 12th overall with a time of 1:06.22. Just as he did in the preliminary in the 50, he set a career-best in the prelim in the backstroke at 1:04.60.
"He took off almost five seconds in two very short races which is amazing," Owens said. "Johana and Jessie swam very competitive in the finals and leave knowing they swam the fastest times of their careers with Lowry."
In the preliminaries on May 11, Kinzie McClintick swam the 100-yard butterfly and took off three seconds and finished with a career-best time of 1:15.31. She also swam the 500 free and took off 16 seconds and finished with a time of 6:20.53. In the B final of the 100-yard butterfly on May 12, she was eighth in a time of 1:18.64 and 16th overall.
Patricia Bates competed in the 100-yard freestyle and recorded a career-best time of 1:04.70 and the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:18.11, which is also a career best. In the B final in the 100-yard breaststroke she bettered her time again at 1:17.13 to be first and ninth overall.
Tori Echeverria competed in the 200-individual medley and the 50-yard freestyle, qualifying for consolations in the 200 individual medley. The junior was sixth in the B final of that race at 2:35.11 and 14th overall.
Senior Olivia Snow swam her last 100-yard breaststroke race and finished her career rated 21st after going into the championships ranked 27th.
AJ Jackson swam the 200 individual medley (2:51) and the 100-yard backstroke (1:16.28) and finished with best times in both events, taking off five seconds total.
Michael Drake qualified for the B final in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. In the prelim races on the opening day, he recorded times of 24.07 and 54.84, which were new personal-best times. In the 50-yard freestyle B final, Drake was sixth in a time of 24.47 and 14th overall and in the 100-yard freestyle he was seventh at 26.09 and 15th overall.
Matt Ruehl qualified for the B final in both the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard breaststroke. He set a career-best in the 100-yard butterfly by seven seconds with a time of 1:12.41. In the B final he was eighth. He also swam the 100 fly in 1:12.99 to finish eighth and 16th overall. He also posted a career-best time of 1:13.66 in the prelim of the 100-yard breaststroke and was fourth in the B final and 12th overall, as he improved his time to 1:13.06.
Dain Maher took off five seconds in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:11.82, which was nine seconds better than his starting time from the beginning of the season.
The girls and boys 200 medley posted their best times of the year. The girls, consisting of Christensen, Echeverria, Bates and McClintick, finished ninth at 2:07.37. Drake, Pate, Ruehl and Joe Schmidt were ninth at 1:55.66.
The girls 200-yard freestyle relay of Christensen, Echeverria, Cicely Snow and McClintick was 10th with a new best time of 1:52.33, while the boys 200 freestyle relay consisting of Drake, Pate, Leo Avila and Schmidt was eighth with a best time of 1:43.81.
The girls 400-yard freestyle relay of Jessica Jensen, Sabrina Jensen, Emma Kracaw and Becky Barber was 10th with a time of 4:43.81 and the boys 400 freestyle relay of Maher, Jackson, Schmidt and Ruehl was ninth with a new best time of 4:27.11.
As a team the Lowry boys were ninth and the girls 12th.
"It was a very good day for our swim team and I thought we represented Lowry very well," Owens said. "All the swimmers that I took to zone did a great job and for the swimmers not graduating I look forward to building on the experiences that they had.
"I was thrilled with our team. I couldn't have done it without the support of all the parents and my assistant coaches Julie and Chris Street and Fleur Jensen. And of course all the days, hours and weeks of the kids that swam. We have seven seniors on our team that we will miss very much next year."
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