Cibola wins region warm-up

With the Colorado River Championships just more than two weeks away, Cibola coach Richard McClure wasn't focusing on his top swimmers in the meet against Yuma High on Thursday at Marcus Pool.

And looking lower on his depth chart, McClure liked what he saw.

Alex Felix won the girls 100-yard freestyle (1:22.52), Sarah Haws won the 100 breaststroke (1:27.15) and Francisco Loera took the 500 freestyle (7:10.13) for the Raiders, who beat the Criminals 242-122 in their final tune-up before the Colorado River Championships, a two-day event that starts at 2 p.m. Oct. 26 at Valley Aquatic Center.

“My concern right now is to see who my 3s and 4s are going to be at the championship meet. I'm more concerned about seeing my 3, 4, 5 and 6 swimmers than I am my 1s and 2s in each event,” McClure said. “I'm seeing the freshmen starting to step up and swim faster, and that's what you want to see at this time of year.”

Cibola's top swimmers were up to their normal routines, including junior Anna Gould, who won all four of her events. She took first in 100 backstroke (1:14.06), 50 freestyle (28.29) and was a part of both the 200 medley relay and 200 freestyle relays. However, her 50 freestyle time was nearly four seconds longer than her seed time of 24.35.

“I did OK, I didn't do as good as I wanted to,” Gould said. “I have to work on my turns. If I can speed up the turns, I can probably make a state time.”

The top Raider boys also finished first, with senior George Gould taking the 100 butterfly (1:01.88), junior Danny Russell-Cheung finished first in the 50 freestyle (25.40) and senior Freddy Martinez was a part of the first-place 200 freestyle relay and took four seconds off his 100 backstroke, winning with a time of 1:05.56.

Gould, Russell-Cheung, Martinez and Ryan Corbin made up the Raiders' 400 freestyle relay team that finished first with a time of 3:41.96.

The Criminals picked up two first-place finishes on the day, with Emmalee Nitelet winning the girls 500 freestyle (8:22.46) and Morgan Blake the girls 200 individual medley (3:46.32).

In the boys 50 freestyle, Yuma High's Alex Moreno was neck and neck with Cibola's Angel Torres the entire race in the second and third lanes. Moreno (32:08) ended up finishing just before Torres (32.13) to take fourth place for the Criminals. Moreno joined teammates Andrew Myers (30.95) and Jorge Yee (32:07) to finish 2-3-4 for Yuma High.

“(Torres) was next to me the entire time and I was really nervous,” Moreno said. “I wanted to get him, and it was nerve-racking because it's an all-out sprint.”

Now the Raiders will have two weeks of practice before they and Criminals get one more shot at putting up a state time at the Colorado River Championships. And with the way some swimmers for McClure performed Thursday, he still has some deciding on where to put who on the depth chart.

“With every answer there's a couple questions,” McClure said. “But it's looking really good.”

Jesse Severson can be reached at jseverson@yumasun.com or at 539-6881. Find him on Facebook at facebook.com/YSJesseSeverson.