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Aquatic Falcons qualify for state early in season

Posted 9/21/22

It didn’t take long. The Fountain Hills High School swim team competed in its third meet of the season and first state qualifier this past weekend, Fast Times in Cools Pines at NAU, and the Falcons …

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Aquatic Falcons qualify for state early in season

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It didn’t take long. The Fountain Hills High School swim team competed in its third meet of the season and first state qualifier this past weekend, Fast Times in Cools Pines at NAU, and the Falcons already have three individuals and two relay teams with state qualifying times.

In Flagstaff, senior Gunnar Wise placed second in both the 50-yard freestyle race (22.98) and 100 breaststroke (1:04.78). Wise qualified for state in both events and set a new school record for 100 breaststroke.

Junior Keian Evans and freshman Natalie Owers also both beat state provisional times in two races. Evans took first place in 100 butterfly (55.31) and fourth place in the 200 Individual Medley (2:13.50). Evans set a new school record for the 200 IM, and Owers set a new school record for 200 freestyle (2:09.53) and placed 12th in 100 backstroke (1:09.48).

The boys 200 Medley relay team of Wise, Evans, junior Brendan Davies and senior Space Kingphakorn also qualified (1:50.45) and took third place with a new school record. The boys 200 freestyle relay team switched Davies for senior Dylan Horsfall, and qualified and set a new school record (1:40.03) en route to a fifth place finish.

Kingphakorn placed 24th in the 50 freestyle (26.64) and 15th in the 100 breaststroke (1:19.80). Horsfall placed 23rd in 100 breaststroke (1:26.39) and 21st in the 100 freestyle (1:05.53).

Davies placed 13th in both 100 freestyle (1:01.59) and 100 backstroke (1:12.96). Fellow junior Elizabeth Franzone placed 33rd in the 50 freestyle (32.74) and 28th in 100 freestyle (1:16.95).

Senior Alexis Sommerschield placed 25th in the 100 freestyle (1:14.32) and 31st in 50 free (31.50). Her younger brother, sophomore Jacob Sommerschield, placed 32nd in the 50 free (29.84) and 28th in 100 breaststroke (1:37.23).

Both sophomore Landon Beatty (1:23.87) and freshman Jacob Jones (1:10.67) set a new PR in 100 freestyle, and freshman Colby Wright placed 20th in the 200 freestyle (2:38.51) and 30th in the 50 freestyle (28.11).

Many Falcons set new personal records at the qualifying meet. The boys ended up placing sixth as a team, and the girls took 12th place. The Falcons have seven weeks left until the state championships and will compete in another meet against Cortez and Marcos de Niza tomorrow, Thursday, Sept. 22, and then compete in another state quailing meet, the Knight Spooktacular, this Friday, Sept. 23, at Higley High School.

“Thank you to all the parents who made the drive and donated snacks to support our Falcon Family,” head coach Patti Schultz said. “We definitely started strong and finished strong, because we are Falcon strong in Flagstaff.”