Outnumbered by almost 10 swimmers and divers, Mingus Union High School got its second season under head coach Gretchen Wesbrock off to a rousing start with a 15-point upset of Northland Preparatory Academy.
“This is a really big deal for us,” Wesbrock said after her first win over the Spartans, as well as a blowout of overmatched Alhambra High School. “We’re a young team with some swimmers brand new to swimming who show really great potential.”
Diving coach Kyle Latham got top-three finishes out of half of his eight Marauders, including freshman Stefan Robertson, the overall boys winner in his first high school meet.
“It was really phenomenal,” Wesbrock said. “I was kind of in shock. I knew we had a group that was going to do really great things, but when you’re outnumbered, you just kind of do the math, right?”
Against 42 Spartans, every single one of the 14 girls and 11 boys for MUHS scored points, with seven of them winning and finishing second in at least one event each.
“That’s more than last year,” Wesbrock said.
Sophomores Dallin Gordon and Fletch Fangman set new personal records in the 100- and 500-yard
freestyle events, respectively, despite runner-up finishes in both events.
Fangman’s 00:55.19 was outdone by nearly four seconds by junior teammate Gunner Tillemans, whose 2:14 in the 200-yard individual medley also beat Northland Prep junior Justin Jarmer, a state tournament swimmer last fall.
MUHS dominated the 100-yard boys backstroke, with freshman Joseph Calhoon debuting with a 16-second victory in his first high school meet.
Calhoon, Fangman, Gordon and Tillemans would team up to win the 200-yard freestyle relay by 22 seconds, with Andrew Peterson, in his first high school meet, replacing Calhoon to help edge the Spartans in the 200-yard medley relay.
Junior Skylar Mohr dropped eight seconds off her PR to win the 500-yard freestyle by more than a minute over little sister Emma, a freshman, in 6:10.31.
Skylar Mohr would go on to finish runner-up in the 200-yard freestyle but win the event with her relay team, which also consisted of junior Emily Grasso, sophomore Rylie Burke and freshman Emma Warner.
“She’s definitely one of my shining, upcoming stars,” Wesbrock said of Warner, who won the 100-yard breaststroke by less than half a second while continuing to battle thyroid cancer. “She is such a determined young girl. There are still a lot of things up in the air for her, and she wants to do all she can until something changes.”
Burke and Warner would go on to be runners-up in the 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard IM, with Grasso defeating sophomore teammate Hannah Arwine in 1:15.50 to win the 100-yard backstroke.
Morley, a sophomore, was the third leg on two second-place Marauders relay teams, while senior teammates Autumn Stanton and Ashlyn Wingfield were second- and third-place divers, respectively.
For full Mingus boys and girls swimming schedules, please see the Wednesday, Sept. 7, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
