Although five of their top swimmers from the Verde Valley Invitational were absent Saturday, July 30, the Cottonwood Clippers easily handled the 11 swimmers from the host Payson Pikes to end their summer season.
Fletch Fangman won all five of his heats among competing 15- to 18-year-olds, while fellow Mingus Union High School junior Emily Grasso duplicated the feat on the girls side.
The wins were icing on the cake for head coach Gretchen Wesbrock, who finished her rookie season with strong progress among most of her MUHS swimmers she will be coaching on the boys and girls teams in the fall.
“Just a great way to end the season, I think,” Wesbrock said. “The kids should be proud. You see a lot of self-gains.”
Junior Gunner Tillemans, who swept his four VVI events, has seen his times drop under Wesbrock all summer, even though he couldn’t make it July 30.
“She separates everyone’s skill level,” he said. “She’ll point to one of us and say, ‘All right, you’re going to swim something crazy today.’”
With more time with Wesbrock, his MUHS head swimming coach, Tillemans has seen all his fall teammates’ times drop all summer — starting with foot turns off the blocks.
“Instead of just the two months, she has four months,” Tillemans said. “She likes to map out and plan everything, then she’ll focus on things in practice. I think it’s helped the Mingus swimmers get their times down.”
That includes recent graduate Ian Flannery, who will be studying filmmaking at Arizona State University after closing out his Clippers career with a strong performance in the 15- to 18-year-old age group.
Dallin Gordon, one-quarter of the invitational’s 200-yard freestyle relay champion, finished runner-up in all five of his heats, as did Ashlyn Wingfield.
Joseph Calhoon won his heat in the 13- to 14-year-old age group, while Abbie Booth and Landon Trezise followed suit among 11- and 12-year-olds.
