Mingus Union High School junior Gunner Tillemans swept his four individual events, while freshman Zoey Arwine touched first three times Saturday, July 23, to lead the Cottonwood Clippers to third place at the 35th Verde Valley Invitational.
“Rule One: Beat the girls,” quipped Tillemans, in his second month back in the pool after eight months of rehabilitation from an injury to muscles in his back. “My next goal is to swim hard, go to State and win State for Mingus.”
By four-hundredths of a second, Tillemans edged Sedona Red Rock High School rival Austin Cottle in the 50-yard breaststroke before downing him in the 50-yard butterfly and edging another 17-year-old, Devin Anderson, from runner-up Needles, Calif., in the 50-yard freestyle.
Tillemans would go on to beat all other 15- to 18-year-old boys in a 265-swimmer field by more than 12 seconds in the 200-yard individual medley.
He and double winner Rylie Burke also teamed up with fellow 15-year-olds Fletch Fangman and Dallin Gordon to win their age group’s 200-yard freestyle relay near the end of seven blazing hours at the Cottonwood Outdoor Pool that were ultimately advantageous to the triumphant Bullhead City Barracudas.
“They definitely are big,” said Gretchen Wesbrock, first-year Clippers head coach. “A lot of kids dropped major, major amounts of time.”
Although the host Clippers had the most swimmers of any VVI team, with 82, even the runner-up Sandsharks, outnumbered by more than 30 swimmers, found their comfort zone in poolside temperatures that topped 105 degrees.
“I think it’s the perfect temperature — before you get in the pool,” Arwine said following her first meet of the summer. “In the morning, it can get pretty cold.”
Tillemans capped his summer comeback from the back injury that had kept him out of the pool since the state high school swimming championships in October with overall high-points honors, tying two boys swimmers each from Bullhead City and the fourth-place Sedona Swim Team with 36 points.
“I like to push everyone to beat each other,” Tillemans said after his final individual event of his final meet of the summer. “Sometimes, even, we might not have enough time to finish a set, but I tell the guys, ‘We’re going to finish it,’ then we stay overtime.”
By a combined 0.37 of a second, Burke would edge swimmers from the Barracudas and Sandsharks to not only win both the 50-yard freestyle and breaststroke events but set new personal records in three of her four heats.
“I got first last year, overall, but, after doing this, I’m faster than I was ending last season,” Burke said. “I’m in better shape.”
Although Bullhead City 16-year-old Jaylene Seaman had the edge, by less than two seconds, in the 50-yard backstroke and butterfly events as well as the 200-yard medley relay, Burke’s team topped the 10 other 15- to 18-year-old teams.
“I think the whole team did really good,” she said. “I just like getting in the water.”
Practicing twice a day, back-to-back, the week before helped Arwine down fellow 13-year-old Faith Haught, from Payson, by a second-and-a-half in the 50-yard freestyle, at 00:28.93, and easily win the 50-yard butterfly, with a finish of 00:30.26.
Haught was no match for Arwine in the 50-yard backstroke, falling by nearly six seconds in 00:35.70.
“It really makes me like swim,” Arwine said. “I really want to make State my freshman year at Mingus.”
Only Bullhead City 14-year-old Kendall Williams would keep Arwine from sweeping her individual swims, edging her by .27 of a second in the 50-yard breaststroke.
Arwine would later team up with fellow 13-year-old Ross Williams and Joseph Calhoon and Emily Mohr, 14, to finish runner-up to the Sandsharks in the 200-yard freestyle relay. They would go on to finish ahead of their counterparts — Bennett Holm and Owen McCallum, 13, and Ellee Gray and Andrew Peterson, 14 — for third place in the 200-yard medley.
Aside from Tillemans, most of the rest of the Clippers will end their summer season with a dual meet Saturday, July 30, at Payson. The 11 swimmers from the Pikes were outnumbered by 70 more Clippers on July 23, finishing last out of the seven teams at the invitational.
For more photos, the Clippers’ best finishers and their invitational event times, please see the Wednesday, July 27, issues of the Camp Verde Journal and Cottonwood Journal Extra.
