Lady Cats cruise to team title in Hobbs swim meet

HOBBS – After their season-opening meet in Lubbock was cut short, Clovis High’s girls cruised to an easy team championship in Saturday’s Tori Invitational swim meet, hosted by Hobbs H.S.

The Lady Wildcats racked up 666 ½ points while second-place Monahans (Texas) was a distant second at 338 in a 17-school field. Meantime, the CHS boys finished seventh out of 16 teams with 142 points, while Monahans took that division at 339.

CHS co-coach Vincent de Maio said the boys squad of eight, featuring two seniors, one junior, two freshmen and three eighth-graders, actually had a pretty good showing.

“It was a good meet for the boys,” de Maio said. “There’s only eight on the roster, and they’re learning. They have a ways to go, but they’re making progress.”

Overall, both teams are looking to improve. Or, as de Maio said: “We ain’t where we ought to be, we ain’t where we want to be, but we ain’t where we used to be, and we ain’t where we’re going to be.”

Senior Lucas Bobo, one of the few returnees from last year’s boys squad, posted a state-qualifying time of 57.40 seconds for second place in the 100 butterfly. He was also third in the 100 backstroke (1 minute, 1.21 seconds) and swam anchor on the third-place 400 freestyle relay (3:49.20), which also includes senior Aron Salfran, junior Jason Sands and eighth-grader Thomas Buck.

Meantime, the Lady Wildcats won five events, including 1-3 finishes in the 200-yard medley relay and 200 freestyle relay, and a 1-3-5 showing in the 400 freestyle relay.

In Lubbock High’s Lubbock Fall Invitational on Nov. 1-2, preliminaries were completed on the first day, but the finals were cancelled shortly after they started on the second day due to thunder and lightning. , Despite that, the Lady Cats earned 14 state-qualifying times, and they added to the list on Saturday.

Clovis posted winning times of 1:57.14 in the 200 medley relay, with senior Julia Spears, junior Lilyan Russell, eighth-grader Mackayla Smith and junior Claire Palla; 1:45.99 in the 200 freestyle relay with Palla, sophomore Reagan Cornish, eighth-grader Evelee Eugene and sophomore Molly Kidd, and 3:54.90 in the 400 freestyle relay with Eugene, Cornish, Spears and Kidd.

“We had a ton of state qualifiers,” de Maio said. “The girls were very workmanlike.”

Other wins for the Lady Cats came from Spears in the 500 freestyle (5:28.28) and the 100 backstroke (1:03.74). They went 1-3-4-5 as a team in the former and 1-2-4-5 in the latter.

Clovis returns to action in Saturday’s Barney Memorial Relays, hosted by Albuquerque Academy.