Cibola starts season with win over Kofa

It was exactly the result the Raiders were looking for.

The Cibola swim team beat Kofa in the season-opening swim meet Tuesday afternoon. The girls team won 83-80, while the boys won 107-73.

“I think we swam very well,” Cibola coach Richard McClure said. “I was pretty excited. We have a lot of new kids swimming and they all came through. They swam great.”

Senior Christian Richardson won the boys 50-yard freestyle for Cibola with a time of 24.46 seconds and took second in the boys 100 freestyle with a time of 58.72 seconds. He was just behind teammate junior Lorenzo Chavez, who had a time of 58.21 seconds. Alejandro Vallapudua, a senior swimmer for Kofa, was a close third with a time of 58.75 seconds.

“Christian Richardson is a senior who is always a little unrecognized because he swims behind Andrew (Russell-Cheung, who didn't swim Tuesday) and Ryan (Keough),” McClure said. “They were both state finalists last year, so he never gets a lot of recognition. But today he did fantastic in his 50 freestyle. I don't know where he pulled that out from but he did great.”

Richardson also helped the Raiders take first in the 200 and 400 medley relays. The relay team for the 200 included senior Keough, sophomore Danny Russell-Cheung and junior Ryan Corbin and finished in 1:51.02. In the 400, Keough, Russell-Cheung and Richardson paired with junior Alfredo Martinez for a combined time for 3:49.50.

Russell-Cheung won two events for the Raiders: the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 1:01.67 and the boys 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:49.88.

Keough took first in the boys 200 individual medley with a time of 2:18.21, just edging out junior Kofa swimmer Cody Duran who took second with a time of 2:18.31. Keough also won the boys 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:04.82.

Despite the loss, Kofa coach Amber Pacewic said she was impressed with her teams' performance.

“For the first meet, they all swam so well,” Pacewic said. “I was really impressed with how our returners swam and how our beginners swam. They all swam really well.”

Senior Marty Porchas won the diving event for the Kings with a score of 136.50.

Even though the Cibola girls won Tuesday's meet, the Kofa girls weren't far behind.

Pacewic said that freshmen Bianca Rollings and sophomore Bethany Daniel did exceptionally well for their first meet.

Rollings and Daniel combined with another newcomer, Randi Faildey, and returner Adly Wiley to win the 200 medley relay in 2:23.26.

Rollings and Daniel took first and second respectively in the girls 200 IM. Rollings finished with a time of 2:39.64 and Daniel finished in 2:41.58. Daniel won the girls 100 backstroke with a time of 1:16.38.

Senior Paige Echols won the 200 and 500 freestyle events with times of 2:22.87 and 6:24.76 respectively. Rollings was right behind Echols in the 500, taking second with a time of 6:27.38.

Kofa will take on Yuma on Thursday. Pacewic said that the Kings have a lot of work to do before that meet.

“We need a little bit more endurance. We also need to work on our turns and our finishes.”

Cibola will travel to Lake Havasu on Thursday for their next meet. McClure said the Raiders still need to improve if they expect to beat the Knights.

“We still need to clean a lot of things up. We need to get ourselves in better shape so that we are stronger and faster.”