By GANNON HANEVOLD
Moapa Valley Progress
Last week’s 3A southern swim regionals was the opportunity was the Moapa Valley High School Swim team needed to send individuals or relay teams to the state meet in Northern Nevada. With various relay squads on the borderline of making the top four and finding themselves on the good side of the cut-off, suspense was present and expectations high.
The week started on Monday, May 6, when all individuals raced in the preliminary rounds. Various Pirates made their way into the Top 16 to race on Thursday’s finals.
By way of team scores, the regional meet didn’t treat the Pirates kindly. With a small team, Moapa Valley has had issues with scoring the points necessary to compete at the team level. But that didn’t stop them making waves in individual events.
Ultimately, the boys swim team came in seventh as a team, while the girls finished in fourth.
In the 50 yard freestyle, Sam Jolley narrowly missed the cuff to make it to state as he came in the fifth place spot by just half of a second. Jolley, one of the Pirates’ top performers and few veterans this season will be in search of improvements in the offseason before his senior year.
In the relays, the boys were painfully close to reaching the finals as well. The Pirates finished just one second behind Western in the 400 yard freestyle relay. At the end of the day, no male swimmers landed in the state meet. Regardless, with a young team, there is much optimism for the future.
“Our entire boys’ relay team is coming back,” said MVHS Swim coach Erinn Thompson. “They have another year to get stronger and better and I’m very excited to see them next year.’
Meanwhile, the girls swimmers are locked in on the present. The Pirates’ 200-yard freestyle relay finished in fourth and earned a spot in the state tournament. The team, made up of Hanna Schulthies, Penny Wardenaer, Emma Walker, and Sara Mills, will head into the state meet as one of the lower seeds but still hope to make waves.
“I’m so excited to see how WE do at state,” said Mills, a junior. “We’ve worked really hard all season to make it this far.”.
Mills was also part of the 400-yard freestyle relay that included Walker, Wardenaer, and Elizabeth Williams. The 400 relay took fourth place with a time of 4:41.52 and will also have a chance to compete at state.
“It’s always rewarding to see that,” Thompson said. “You prepare and see the standings before regionals to see where they’re sitting and feel great, but other teams are working just as hard too,. Sometimes it’s easy to take that for granted, but they didn’t; and it showed.”
Outside of the relays, Penny Wardenaer, a foreign exchange student from Norway, will be able to add Reno to her American passport. Wardenaer finished in third place in the 100 yard breastroke, just five seconds behind the Southern regional champion in that event.
With six athletes making the trip to state this weekend, Thompson laid out her expectations for the state meet.
“They are phenomenal kids to work with!” Thompson said. “Most of all, I’m looking for their times to improve and for them to better themselves this weekend.”
