5A state swim meet begins Friday
Every team in every high school sport wants to believe that this is the year. This will finally be the season that they emerge as the top team in their classification.
But sometimes reality says otherwise.
Take, for example, the local 5A swimming teams that are preparing for the two-day state meet at BYU this weekend. Both Lone Peak and American Fork have talented swimmers, good coaches and faced top-notch competition during the regular season.
They’re just lacking depth, at least when compared to the traditional 5A powers up north.
“We don’t have the numbers,” said Caveman head coach Kathy King. “We don’t take a huge squad to state like Kearns, Skyline (the defending 5A champs in both divisions) and Brighton. That’s why one of our goals all year has been to crack the top five.”
The Knight boys managed a sixth-place finish in 2006 while the American Fork girls edged out Lone Peak to get fourth. It was a performance King hopes to see repeated this week.
“I think we’re going to have some big swims,” she said. “Just about everyone had season-best performances at region and I expect them to do even better. They always pull it together at state.”
Leading the Knight girls will be Taryn Toolson and Kimberly Welch, while Lone Peak will look for big things on the boys side from Tom Nielsen and Jeremy Sparks.
American Fork will counter with junior Candice Smith, senior Audra Yocom and junior Alliesha O’Neal for the girls, with senior Michael King and freshman McKay King for the boys.
Getting into that top group will come down to the little things, according to King.
“You want to gain as many points as you can,” she explained. “Everything is still to be played out and anything can happen.”
King said that the key for the swimmers to be successful this weekend will be to do what they’ve done all year.
“They just need to remember what they did to get here,” she said. “They believe in themselves and they can do it. We’ve been resting and tapering, so there’s nothing left to do but just get there and swim.”
The meet starts at 5 p.m. on Friday and at 12 p.m. on Saturday. All events will be held in the Richards Building pool at BYU and admission for spectators is $5 for adults and $4 for students. Seating is limited, so fans should show up early.
