High school swimming: Desert Hills, Snow Canyon, Sky View top contenders in 4A, while 3A meet is wide open

Sky View’s Darwin Anderson competes in the 500-yard freestyle at the 4A state meet in Provo on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Deseret Hills’ boys and Snow Canyon’s girls the favorites in 4A, but there’s no clear-cut favorite heading into 3A state meet

SALT LAKE CITY — The 4A and 3A state swimming championships will be held at BYU this Friday and Saturday, and here’s a look at the top contenders in both classifications.

Class 4A

The chase for state titles goes through St. George once again this week, but unlike last year they don’t both go through Desert Hills.

Fresh off of winning the Region 9 title, Desert Hills’ boys are the favorite to three-peat as 4A state champs, but Snow Canyon’s girls captured the Region 9 championship last week and are the front runner at BYU this weekend.

Desert Hills coach Shawn King said his boys team hasn’t had a great meet all season, but King believes it’s due.

“I really do expect we’re going to perform well. If my guys swim the way they can I think, we’re going to walk away with that state championship. But Snow Canyon and Sky View are both really good programs; they have good coaches. We’re hoping we can outperform them,” said King.

“I really do expect we’re going to perform well. If my guys swim the way they can I think, we’re going to walk away with that state championship. But Snow Canyon and Sky View are both really good programs; they have good coaches. We’re hoping we can outperform them.” — Desert Hills coach Shawn King

Desert Hills’ boys team has a great mix of star power with Payton Plumb, Ashton Anderson and Alex Haws, and then depth to pick up a bunch of additional team points along the way.

“In our (classification) you definitely have to have both, which is why I think we have an edge,” said King.

Juan Diego and Sky View claimed the other two region titles, and Sky View’s star power and depth gives it the best hope at catching Desert Hills.

Darwin Anderson and Jaxon Tueller each won two individual region titles at the Region 11 meet. Anderson owns the best 500 free time in the entire state, and the second-best 200 individual medley time.

On the girls side, Snow Canyon’s speed will be tough for anyone to contend with.

“Snow Canyon girls have a really good blend of star power and depth. Their fast sprint girls who are going to score a lot of points and that’s going to help them out on their relays,” said King.

Leading the way for Snow Canyon are Kylie Barber, Gretchen Snelders and Cambria Callaway, who combined for four individual first-place finishes and two second-place finishes at the Region 9 meet. They helped the Warriors win two of three relays as well.

To pull off an upset, Desert Hills will need another strong meet from standout Caitlin Romprey, but big contributions as well Mykela Hansen, Emma Brown and Hallie King.

Tooele and Sky View won the other girls region championships, but they lack the star power to likely knock off the Region 9 contenders.

Other standouts to watch at state are Ridgeline’s Hailey Rigby, Ridgeline’s Carly Eubanks and Sky View’s Jenna Gibbons

---

Class 3A

The 3A state swim meet figures to be wide open, without a clear-cut favorite for either the boys or the girls.

For the boys, Richfield, North Summit and Millard head into the state meet after winning their respective region championships. Of the three region champs, however, only Millard has much big-race experience at state as it finished third a year ago while the other two finished outside the top eight.

Defending state champion Grand finished third at the Region 12 meet behind Richfield and Emery.

Some of the standout boys swimmers to watch this weekend are Judge Memorial’s Nico Morton and Alex Yannelli, Grantsville’s Zane Thomas, Rowland Hall’s Lucas Erickson and Telos Academy’s Guil Ware.

A year ago at the 3A state meet, Carbon’s girls edged Rowland Hall by one point, with third-place Judge Memorial only 10 points behind.

This year has the potential to be just as close with similar balance throughout the classification. Emery, Judge Memorial and Millard head into the state meet with the momentum after winning their respective region titles, but the three region runners-up (Carbon, Rowland Hall and Union) can’t be discounted either.

The top individual swimmers to watch on the girls side are Grantsville’s Hadlee Begay, Rowland Hall’s Grace Smith, Wasatch Academy’s Genevieve Jones, Emery’s Haley Guymon, Richfield’s Aubri Kling and Maeser Prep’s Kylie Hansen.

from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2GSkSVK