Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
CHS junior Brynn Longley pulls ahead of a couple of rival swimmers during the girls 500 freestyle in Saturday's Lovington Invitational swim meet. The Lady Wildcats finished second to Rio Rancho in the team standings.
LOVINGTON – When Clovis High's swimming teams left for Saturday's Lovington's Wildcat Invite, co-coach Vincent de Maio said he told them, "It's a training day."
The idea was to see swimmers in some different events and different combinations. CHS took the boys' team title with 459 ½ points to 369 for Rio Rancho, while the girls' order of finish was reversed – Rio Rancho winning with 499 points to 407 for the Lady Cats.
"It was a good meet for us," de Maio said. "We got to see (the Rio Rancho) schools for the first time, so the was good."
For the boys, senior Porter Kidd completed qualifying for state in all eight individual events when he posted wins in the 100 backstroke (56.94) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.81), making him the first to earn de Maio's "Iron Cat" award for accomplishing the feat twice – he also did it last year. The Cats also won the 200 and 400 medley relays in respective times of 1:54.16 and 4:13.15, and they added a handful of second-place finishes.
For the Lady Cats, junior Julia Spears was a winner in the 100 butterfly in 1:19.06. She also swam the third leg on the winning 200 medley relay (2:01.84).
Clovis put two teams in all but one of the six relays, mixing up the runners in most of them. The Cats finished 1-3 in the 200 medley relay and 1-5 in the 200 medley relay while the Lady Cats were 1-7 in the 200 medley relay and 2-6 in the 400 freestyle relay.
The Cats and Lady Cats now have a week off from competition before returning to Lea County for their second get-together this season at Hobbs on Dec. 2.
