CHS swimmers end regular campaign in Santa Fe Prep meet

Jan. 30—SANTA FE — Clovis High's swimmers got a good look over the weekend at the top two teams in the state in the season-ending Griffin Invite, hosted by Santa Fe Prep.

Albuquerque Academy and Los Alamos went 1-2 in the meet and are expected to do the same in state competition, slated for Feb. 23-24 at Academy. The Chargers took the boys team championship this weekend with 557 points to 373 for Los Alamos, while the Lady Hilltoppers won the girls' division with 385 1/2 points to 344 for Academy.

Meantime, the Wildcats were third in boys standings with 195 points, ahead of Santa Fe High and St. Pius (147), who tied for fourth. St. Pius was third in girls competition at 259, with the Lady Wildcats fourth at 169 and Santa Fe High rounding out the top five at 160 1/2 .

The field included 20 girls teams and 19 boys squads.

"We're not going to beat Academy or Los Alamos," CHS co-coach Vincent de Maio said on Monday. "They're going to be the top two teams at state, so for us to be third and fourth was pretty good.

"We had some goals up there. We put a lot of kids in relays instead of individual events. We just kind of played around with it to see how they fit."

He said some of his swimmers were not feeling that well on Friday.

"We were just happy to get through it," he said. "They felt better on Saturday, and we swam better."

The Cats added three new state qualifiers with seniors Connor Dearinger (54.28) and Kriday Andiboina (54.71) in the boys 100-yard freestyle, and senior David Reeb (1 minute, 8.91 seconds) in the boys 100 breaststroke. Reeb has now qualified for state in all 11 swimming events except the 50 freestyle.

Seniors Porter Kidd, Andiboina, Reeb and Dearinger finished fourth in the 200 medley relay in 1:47.03. That same foursome, swimming in reverse order, did likewise in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:30.70.

Kidd had the boys' top individual performance for the weekend, finishing second in the 100 butterfly in 49.10.

The Lady Cats also had strong showings in the aforementioned relays. The team of junior Brynn Longley, sophomore Lilyan Russell, junior Julia Spears and sophomore Claire Palla claimed second place in the 200 medley in 5:32.72, while freshmen Molly Kidd and Reagan Cornish, Spears and Palla posted a time of 4:00.76 for third place in the 400 freestyle relay.

Spears added a second-place finish in the 500 freestyle in 5:32.72.

De Maio said he'd like to see about four more events get qualified for state in the District 3-4 meet, scheduled for Feb. 9-10 at Artesia. Academy hosts state competition Feb. 23-24.

Last season, the Cats were fourth in the state meet while the girls finished 10th.

"I'm hoping the girls can get in the top five (at state), and I hope the boys can too," de Maio said. "Our focus now is just to get ready for district and state."