WINNEMUCCA - After opening the season with a dual in Reno against Reed and South Tahoe, the Lowry High School swim team was back in Reno on Saturday for the Zephyr Aqua 5.
The Zephyr Aqua 5 features no relays and swimmers compete in as many of the individual events that they can. The league features seven teams, although Truckee and South Tahoe were both unable to make it out of the Sierra Nevadas due to the snowstorm that hit the region, leaving Churchill County, Wooster, Bishop Manogue, Reed and Lowry. There were 70 girls participating and 52 boys.
Lowry had five Lady Bucks compete in all five events including
Johana Christensen, Tori Echeverria, Becky Barber, Kinzie McClintick and Trish Bates.
Christensen qualified for the Northern 4A regional championships in all five events and set a personal-best in the 100-yard backstroke of 1 minute, 4.78 seconds.
"She took off almost two seconds, which is remarkable at this level and this time of the year," said LHS head coach Mike Owens.
Christensen finished in second place overall with 404 points. She won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle, was fourth in the 100-yard buttery, second in the 100-yard backstroke and third in the 100-breaststoke.
Echeverria qualified for the regional in four of five events, while McClintick and Bates qualified in one event each. McClintick qualified in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:18.66 and Bates in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:22.34.
"I was also impressed with Becky," Owens said. "She had a very good meet, improving in the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke. She did a great job in all five events and has worked very hard in practice to be able to compete in all five events."
The Lady Bucks also had a number of swimmers that turned in good times either as returning or new swimmers on the team. Jillian Pfarr finished 14th in the 50-yard freestyle, with McClintick 21st and Olivia Snow 23rd. Sabrina Jensen took off one second from last week and placed 32nd out of 70 swimmers.
In the 100-yard freestyle, Echeverria finished 12th, McClintick 16th, Jerrica Hansen 41st, Christie Kloeppel 46th and Abby Flores 59th.
In the 100-yard backstroke, following Christensen's second-place finish, Echeverria was 10th, McClintick 17th, Barber 26th, Sabrina Jensen 30th, Emma Kracaw 32nd, Jillian Pfarr 36th, Jessica Jensen 40th and Kloeppel 44th.
Following Christensen (third) and Bates (fifth) in the 100-yard breaststroke, McClintick was 13th, Echeverria 16th, Snow 18th and Jessica Jensen 33rd.
"Numerous girls had good meets and worked had," said the coach. "I was very proud of all of them."
The Lowry boys posted regional championship times, with Michael Drake and Jessie Pate qualifying in all five events, and AJ Jackson and Matthew Ruehl swimming all five events as well. Ruehl qualified in the 100-yard butterfly and Dain Maher in the 100-backstroke
Drake finished third and Pate eighth overall, with Owens stating that both were very competitive in all the events. Drake set personal bests in all five events that he competed in and finished third in the 50-yard freestyle. The senior was fourth in the 100-yard butterfly, taking off an impressive eight seconds from his previous best for a time of 1:00.56. He was fifth in the 100-yard freestyle at 56.34, fourth in the 100-yard backstroke (taking off one second from his previous best) and third in the 100-yard breaststroke (again taking off one second).
"He basically had five new best times," added the coach. "That was pretty impressive to say the least."
Pate finished sixth in the 50-yard freestyle, eighth in the 100-yard butterfly, eighth in the 100-yard freestyle, ninth in the 100-yard backstroke and fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Ruehl, who was swimming his first 100-yard butterfly of the year, finished with a regional time of 1:10.35. Maher also qualified for his first individual regional championship in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:19.06, taking 11 seconds off his previous best and finishing 12th.
Jeremiah Maestrejuan posted new personal-best times in the 50-yard freestyle at 29.41. He then finished 18th in the 100-yard backstroke, taking off eight seconds with a time of 1:31.94. He cut off 4 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing 15th with a time of 1:29.43.
Bradley Schmidt took off two seconds and six seconds, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle.
In addition, Ruehl took off five seconds in the 100-yard backstroke, while Tristen Waller improved by five seconds in the 100-yard freestyle in his second competitive meet and finished in 41st.
"Overall the boys had only four disqualifications, which really is remarkable for the number of new swimmers and the number of events that they were able to swim in," Owens said.
Lowry is not scheduled for another meet until Saturday, April 14, at Truckee at 10 a.m. Owens said the Buckaroos are looking to have a meet with Churchill County and Fernley to fill the void in the schedule.
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