Cats notch victory at Cleveland meet

RIO RANCHO – Senior Thomas Palla and junior Porter Kidd were each in on four wins to help Clovis High’s boys cruise to team honors in the Cleveland Invite swim meet on Saturday.

Clovis posted 467 1/2 team points to 398 for the runnerup host Storm. Meantime, the CHS girls came in second with 445 points to Rio Rancho, which compiled 523.

All six boys wins in the meet were with state-qualifying times. Palla won the 100 butterfly (57.49 seconds) and 100 breaststroke (1:05.06), while Kidd took the 200 freestyle (1:54.28) and the 500 freestyle (5:17.90).

Each also swam a leg on the winning 200 medley (1:47.11) and 400 freestyle (3:31.21) relay teams.

The Lady Wildcats, missing three swimmers due to illness, nonetheless captured five events and posted six state-qualifying marks, two coming on second-place finishes by sophomore Julia Spears (500 freestyle) and the 400 freestyle relay team.

“It was a very good weekend,” CHS co-coach Vincent de Maio said. “It was a long bus ride, and we had to leave at quarter to five (on Saturday morning). It’s always a great thing, getting on a bus for a long ride and then being able to go race.”

Last week, Kidd qualified in the 11th and final event for state to earn de Maio’s “Iron Cat” award, and Palla is one event (50 freestyle) away from doing the same thing.

Joining the duo on the shorter relay were juniors David Reeb and Ricky Southern, while rounding out the 400 event were Reeb and junior Kriday Andiboina.

In their previous meet, the Lady Cats took the team title easily but posted no event wins. This time they won five events but still came in second.

Which would de Maio prefer?

“I’ll take winning the events,” he said. “The girls had some really good times this weekend.”

All three girls relays posted state-qualifying marks. CHS compiled times of 2:04.71 to win the 200 medley relay and 1:51.79 to take the 200 freestyle, while the 400 freestyle relay was second in 4:06.59.

Sophomore Julia Spears, who swam on the two freestyle relays, posted state qualifying marks en route to a first-place finish in the 500 freestyle (5:33.43) and a runnerup showing in the 200 IM (2:22.69). Other wins for the Lady Cats came from freshman Claire Pella in the 50 freestyle (26.84) and eighth-grader Reagan Cornish in the 100 butterfly (1:09.82).

Clovis squads are now idle until Jan. 6-7 when they compete in an invitational at Andrews, Texas. It’s the first of three meets remaining before they enter district competition at Hobbs, slated for Feb. 3-4.

“Now the real work starts,” de Maio said. “Around the middle of January we’ll be getting ready for the championship season.”