Cibola boys, Yuma girls win region meet

It was a local clash Wednesday night as Cibola, Gila Ridge, Kofa and Yuma High met in the Gila Valley Regional at Marcus Pool.

When the water settled two teams stood above the rest. Cibola reigned as the boys champions with 664 points and Yuma High took home the girls gold with a score of 517.

"This is the state qualifying meet, if you don't do well here, you don't go to state," Cibola coach Richard McClure said. "This was our teams stepping stone to our goal of state, and we had a lot students perform well enough to get there."

Leading the Raiders was Jacob Russell-Cheung who won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes,16.5 seconds and the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:05.53. He narrowly beat his brother, Andrew (1:05.6).

Jacob Russell-Cheung was named the Gila Valley Region boys swimmer of the year at the end of the meet.

Also performing well for Cibola was Mike Doering who took first place in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:00.12. He also won the 500 free (5:23.39).

The Kofa boys came in second with a 401 total. The Kings' top scorer was Johnathan Duran, who had a pair of first-place finishes. He won the 50 free (23.1) and the 100 free (50.78). Yuma finished third with 384 points and Gila Ridge finished fourth with 167.

Myriah Frabasilio and Emily Hieber led the Criminals in the girls meet. Frabasilio took first place in the 200 IM (2:19.37) and the 100 free (56.78), narrowly edging teammate Ashton Hobbs (56.92).

Hieber earned first in the 100-yard butterfly (1:03.67), almost 10 seconds faster than second place Katie Hodgin of Gila Ridge.

Hieber also took first in the 100-yard backstroke (1:08.61).

Cibola finished second overall for the girls with 436 points, followed by Kofa in third (373) and Gila Ridge in fourth (255).

Kofa's Katelyn Weddle, who committed to swim for San Diego State, won the 50 free (25.4) and the 100 breast (1:05.9).

Weddle was named the Gila Valley Region girls swimmer of the year.