In its third meet of the season Thursday, Sept. 9, the Mingus Union High School swim team took on some of the best competition it will see this year at the Cottonwood Community Pool.
For the girls, the Marauders took second overall with 89 points, far behind rival Flagstaff High School, who took first with 168 points.
Sedona Red Rock High School wound up in third with 51 points and Bradshaw Mountain High School wrapped up the top four with 16 points.
The Mingus boys finished third overall Thursday with 73 total points scored. The Sedona Scorpions showed why they’re 3A conference defending state champions, taking first overall with 114 points.
Coming in second was Flagstaff with 105 points while Bradshaw Mountain was fourth with 32 points and Dysart High School wrapped up the top five with five points.
“We wanted to host this meet as a state-qualifying meet in an effort to give some of the northern Arizona teams an idea, or benchmark, of where they need to be come state time in November,” first-year Mingus Head Coach Erin Estes said.
Hosting an early state qualifying meet gives teams a chance to look at what they need to improve on, according to Estes, and Mingus is no different.
The Marauders managed only one first-place finish Thursday in Cottonwood with Farrah Etcheverry taking first overall in 1-meter diving with a 141.25 score.
“For only having one month of practice, the diving program is beginning to take off for us,” Estes said.
Mingus recorded six second-place finishes, however, including the girls 200-yard medley relay event where the Marauders took second overall with a 2:07.69 time. Kyla Furey, Aly Dorris, Katheryn Knowles and Lacy O’Connell were the four to swim the event.
The four also teamed up to take second overall in the 400-yard freestyle relay event with a 4:20.32 time.
“Our relay events are going to be top-notch this season. The girls were outstanding Thursday and we put this group together to see what they could do, and good things are happening,” Estes said.
Speaking of Furey, she took second overall in the 200-yard individual medley race with a 2:31.57 time and was second in the 100-yard backstroke event with a 1:11.25 time.
The individual medley race time for Furey earns her a provisional cut for state in November; she was the only Marauder to achieve this Thursday.
In the boys 50-yard freestyle event, Cody Heflin took first overall with a 25.73 time while Logan Kitchen took second in the 1-meter diving event with a 154.80 score.
Heflin was third in the 100-yard freestyle event as well with a 57.66 time.
Other standouts for the Marauders on Thursday include Jamie Adams who took third overall in the 50-yard freestyle event with a 30.34 time while Knowles took third in the 100-yard butterfly event with a 1:18.81 time.
Adams also finished third in the 100-yard backstroke event with a 1:20.99 time.
O’Connell took fourth in the girls 100-yard freestyle event with a 1:05.73 time and Adam Sandoval was third in the 100-yard backstroke event with a 1:16.08 time.
The Marauders are back in action Thursday, Sept. 16, when they travel to Desert Edge High School for a dual meet at the YMCA pool in Litchfield.
Mingus will return home Thursday, Sept. 23, when it is scheduled to face Youngker High School in a Skyline region dual meet. The Youngker meet is scheduled for 4 p.m.
