Clovis swimmers hope for high marks

Clovis High swimming coach Vincent de Maio doesn’t think his teams are quite ready to compete for state team championships, at least not yet.

He does think both squads have enough to challenge for high team finishes in this weekend’s state meet, hosted by Albuquerque Academy.

“We’re always looking for top-five finishes,” said de Maio, who has coached the girls contingent since its third season in 2004-05 and started the boys program the following year.

Still, he said the main focus is to see continued improvement.

link Staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Clovis senior Case Schaap exhales some air while swimming the backstroke at Wednesday swimming practice at Clovis Aquatic Center in preparation for this weekend state tournament.

“Our priority is not really what place we finish, but are we getting better each year,” de Maio said. “We need to narrow our focus to the task at hand.”

The Clovis girls finished fifth in last year’s state meet, while the boys were sixth. The school had its first state champion in then-senior Everett Ward, who won the boys 100 backstroke event.

This year’s squads have only one senior — Case Schaap for the boys. Schaap is slated to swim the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke and will lead off on the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays at state.

Trying to get into the top five could be a real challenge, he acknowledged, given the team’s lack of numbers.

“We only have nine boys, and we face teams with 20 or more swimmers,” said Schaap, who this week was awarded the New Mexico Activities Association’s $1,000 swimming and diving scholarship for boys. “We may not win as a team, but individually we can compete with anybody.”

While the boys team is relatively young, the girls squad is even younger, with no one above the sophomore class. Still, the Lady Wildcats figure to be a force at the state level.

Schaap, who will attend the Ivy League’s Cornell University in the fall, said the sky’s the limit for the Lady Cats.

“I think the girls will be really strong this year, and the boys will be strong,” he said. “Last year, we were sixth with just four guys; we’d like to do better than that.”

The girls, meantime, figure they have a chance to make a mark this weekend despite their relative youth.

“I think it’s pretty cool that we’re doing so well,” said freshman Aspyn Osburn, who will compete in the 100 backstroke and the 500 freestyle in addition to two relays this weekend. “I think it helps that some of us have known each other since we were about seven. We’re more like family.”

The Lady Cats have won five of their seven meets during the high school season, finishing third and fourth, respectively, in invitationals at Lubbock and Albuquerque.

“I think we’ll score some points this year,” Osburn said. “We have more variety with people who can do different stuff.”

De Maio said defending champion Eldorado and La Cueva, and possibly Los Alamos, figure to battle for girls team honors, while defending champion Academy is the favorite on the boys’ side.

“The keys for us are to get all three of our relays to the finals (top eight),” he said. “For the boys, if we can get the third relay (400 freestyle) into the top 16 (consolation finals), that’ll really help us.”

Diving prelims are set for Friday morning, with finals on Saturday morning. Clovis does not have anyone in the diving portion of the event.

Swimming prelims begin at 3 p.m. on Friday, with the finals starting at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.