The Durango Swim Club saw a number of young swimmers dive into their first meet and make an immediate impact last weekend at the Four Corners Aquatic Team Winter Wonderland Open Meet in Farmington.
DSC saw five swimmers – Lloyd and Nicolina Lasher, Evie Morris, and Carson and Tabor Williamson – make their debut for the team, and all five scored points during the meet.
In the under-10 division, Lloyd Lasher (10) placed fourth and fifth in the 25-yard freestyle and 50 backstroke, respectively.
Nicolina Lasher (9) placed fifth in the 25 freestyle and 10th in the 50 backstroke. Morris (10) earned third-place finishes in the 25 backstroke and 25 butterfly, and 10th in the 50 freestyle.
Carson Williamson (11) finished third in the 25 freestyle, seventh in the 100 freestyle and 12th in the 50 freestyle.
Tabor Williamson (12) earned three top-five finishes. He won the 25 freestyle, placed second in the 25 butterfly and was fifth in the 50 freestyle.
“These five kids have been a lot of fun to coach,” DSC head coach Alex Martinek said in an email to The Durango Herald. “You can always see kids step up when it’s time to compete. It gives a purpose to coming to practice.”
Ali Reese (10) led the team with 200 points competing in the under-10 division. He nearly set a new club record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 29.36 seconds, which won the event. The current DSC record for the event is 29.32 seconds set by Casey Hamilton in 2011. Reese also won the 50 butterfly, in which he shaved nine seconds off his previous best to finish in 38.73 seconds.
DSC also saw big improvements from Maren Clay (12), Dillan Githens (12) and Lauren McCourt (10).
Clay won the 500 freestyle in which she shaved 14 seconds off her previous personal best and broke the seven-minute barrier with a time of 6:54.74 .
In her first time swimming in the 25 butterfly, Githens placed second with a time of 29.67 seconds.
McCourt finished fifth in the 100 individual medley with a time of 1:39.57, which was 8.5 seconds faster than her previous best.
“Their talents are really starting to blossom,” Martinek said. “It’s the moments where we tell the kids 100 times how to do it right and it finally clicks that make coaching so great. We had a lot of those moments this weekend. Teaching moments. So, it was a great meet. I’m proud of how everyone did.”
Team scores from the meet were not available.
Next on the schedule for the DSC is the 2018 Phoenix Winter Invitational to be held Feb. 16-19 in Arizona.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
