Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Team finishes third at state meet without any top-two finishes.
ALBUQUERQUE — Placing third in a state swim meet is no small achievement.
And the Clovis girls team has now done that two years in a row.
Last weekend at Albuquerque Academy, the Lady Wildcats were third at the state meet with 196 points, finishing just 24 behind second-place Eldorado.
Meet host Albuquerque Academy won big, taking first place with 390 points.
“We really needed the dominoes to fall good for us to be third,” Clovis head coach Gordy Westerberg said. “And I expected us to be fourth, kind of fighting for fourth with Las Cruces. And Las Cruces ended up being sixth.
“To be third two years in a row, that’s a pretty big deal.”
Las Cruces, who had finished second to Clovis, 144-139, at the District 3/4 meet in Hobbs two weeks prior, notched 157 points for that sixth-place state finish last weekend.
La Cueva was fourth (176), Albuquerque High fifth (163). 37 teams competed overall, 29 that scored points.
Westerberg was especially impressed with senior Hannah Luscombe’s meet performance. “The person that swam the best (for Clovis) was Hannah Luscombe,” Westerberg said. “She was really good.”
Luscombe took fifth in the girls 200 individual medley, posting a lifetime-best 2:12.0. She also medaled in the girls 100 backstroke, placing eighth with a time of 1:00.7.
Clovis’ highest finishes were thirds, tallied in five different events. Bella Zamora notched two third-place finishes — in the girls 100 freestyle (:53.3) and girls 100 backstroke (:58.8).
Shyann Kissinger took third in the girls 500 freestyle (5:12.2).
The girls 200 free relay team of Zamora, Kissinger, Luscombe and Nina Mead (1:42.8), and 400 free relay team of Kissinger, Katie Reeb, Luscombe and Zamora (3:40.8) each finished third.
Also medaling for the Lady Wildcats were: Kissinger, who took fourth in the girls 200 freestyle (1:57.5); and Reeb, who was sixth in the girls 500 free (5:19.1) and eighth in the girls 200 free (2:03.9).
Amber Westerberg was 11th in the girls 500 freestyle (5:33.7) and 15th in the girls 200 i.m. (2:21.0).
Westerberg was also part of the 12th-place girls 200 medley relay team (2:00.5) that included Reeb, Mead and Tabitha May.
May was 15th in the girls 500 free (5:45.5).
Clovis’ boys finished 24th. The boys championship came down to the meet’s final race, with Los Alamos (377) edging out Academy (372).
Clovis had a 14th-place finish in the boys 400 free relay (3:40.6), with a team including Clayton Hogan, Thomas Palla, William Longhenry and Porter Kidd.
Clovis’ boys team has no seniors on it. “So we are very, very excited about that,” Coach Westerberg said.
The Lady Wildcats graduate only four seniors, “and we’ve got some seventh-graders that are going to be moving up that will help us,” Coach Westerberg said.
Clovis still has its state club meet the weekend of March 6-7 in Albuquerque.
