Pirate Swimmers Improve Times In Meet Vs. White Pine

By GANNON HANEVOLD

Moapa Valley Progress

The Moapa Valley High School Swim teams took on White Pine in a meet last Thursday that came in as one of the final meets of the season for the Pirates. That means it is also one of the final opportunities for the Pirates and their athletes to qualify for regionals. This forced Moapa Valley to turn out and go harder than they had all year. The results were impressive.

Both boys’ and girls’ swimming teams dominated in the scoring column, as White Pine only brought a small number of swimmers to the meet. But what was even more impressive were the times put on the board by Moapa Valley swimmers.

For the girls, Payten Peluaga’s time of a 36.17 in the 50 yard freestyle was clearly the best score in the event.

But perhaps the most exciting individual improvement of the meet came from Marina Mortensen. Mortensen needed to shave quite a bit of time off of her performance in the 100 yard breaststroke in order to qualify for regionals. Remarkably, she pulled it off, dropping her time to 1:41.13.

Alexis Sawyer led the Pirates in the 100 yard freestyle with a time of 1:10.38. The team’s relays continue to impress as well and have shown the potential to still be swimming weeks from now when the state meet rolls around.

The girls aren’t the only ones showing massive potential to go far this season in their relays. The boys teams continue to get better as well. Tyler Holmes, one of the swimmers in the Pirates’ A team, shared praise for his team’s possibilities.
“Our Boys’ A relay has looked strong all season and has a strong chance to go to state in the medley, 200, and 400 yard relays,” he said.

Holmes was excited about his team’s individual performance as well, adding, “We had incredible improvement. We had some of our relays cutting time, and it was great to watch so many more people meet qualifying times for regionals. We have a couple individuals who are just a few seconds away from qualifying for state, and with some hard work, I’m sure we can get there.”

The boys’ performance at the meet last week featured top finishes by Ryan Foster in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 30.47 seconds and a first place finish by Holmes in the 200 yard freestyle, who finished with an impressive 2:09.81 second time. Holmes has been excited about his team’s ability to unite this year.

“The coolest thing this year was to see how well the team came together,” he said. “We had some natural talent, but we also had swimmers who never swam before. It was so fun to watch everybody grow and improve as a team and didn’t hurt to watch everyone celebrate when they beat their time or won a race too.”

With just another shot before regionals come up, the Pirates hope to meet their individual goals before time is up, or keep improving to ensure an opportunity to go even further.