High school swim teams lower times, ready for Belen Invite

BELEN — With the New Mexico Swimming and Diving Championships just five weeks away, local teams seem to be making solid strides — or strokes — toward the finish line.

Following the Albuquerque Academy Invitational last Saturday, Belen, Los Lunas and Valencia have all qualified swimmers for the state meet Feb. 20-21 at the same Academy natatorium.

“Our season is going great,” said BHS coach Liz Jones on the eve of the Academy meet.

The Eagles had already qualified for state in the boys 200 medley relay and, in school record time, the 200 freestyle relay. The all-senior lineup features Cole Rodriguez, Nehemiah Sanchez, Arbin Apodaca and Diego Vigil.

“It’s nice you don’t have to worry about it now,” said Sanchez about qualifying for the state meet. “You don’t have anything to stress about.”

At the Academy Invitational, the BHS relay team was fourth in the 200 free and fifth in the medley against 30 teams.

“There’s room for improvement,” noted Rodriguez, who qualified Saturday individually in the 100 backstroke. “Get faster. Get into the water and do our best.”

Apodaca swims the second-leg of the relay, something he called “a surreal experience. Once you’re on the block you get pretty focused and the nerves kind of fade off.”

The Belen girls team is very young, with Makayla Soliz-Coffey taking a leadership role as the only senior.

“My favorite event is probably the 50 free just because it’s the fastest to get done,” Soliz-Coffey said while smiling. “It’s fun.”

Some of the Eagle youngsters, boys and girls, saw noticeable improvement at Academy. In the 100 freestyle, Jackeline Lopez-Aguirre dropped five seconds, and Isaiah Adams improved 10 seconds while the time in the 100 backstroke for Logan Martinez was a whopping 18 seconds better.

One of the pleasures of this season for Vigil is “a lot more kids” are competing then in the past. “The team will be in good hands,” when the seniors graduate, according to Vigil.

The Los Lunas and Valencia teams are separate squads but they practice together at the Eagles Natatorium and are both coached by Marissa Candelaria.

“We actually started out with a bang,” Candelaria said about VHS, with senior Ava Casaus-Carrasco hitting the state-qualifying mark in the 200 intermediate at her first meet.

It’s an event Casaus-Carrasco had resisted, but Candelaria kept pushing.

“I kept telling her she should swim it. She just didn’t want to swim it,” recalls Candelaria, who says Casaus-Carrasco reached a qualifying mark easily in the first meet. “It was an amazing swim.”

“I like the adrenaline rush. I just like getting on the blocks and competing,” said Casaus-Carrasco, who admits that the thought of a disappointing race is “terrifying.”

Andres Burkhard came into the year as the top returner for the Valencia boys, but illness kept him out of the pool a significant amount of time. That didn’t seem to matter much at the Academy meet, with Burkhard earning a state berth in the 100 breaststroke in his first attempt this season, finishing second overall.

“Most of us are returners, just building on last year,” Burkhard said about the team’s prospects. “We should be making some good progress.”

For Los Lunas, there is also reason for optimism. Luke Hetes, Oen Martinez and Rhys Romero, in her first meet after a knee injury, recorded personal records at Academy.

Hetes, a relative newcomer to the sport, has jumped in whole-heartedly.

“I can’t really imagine my life without it at this point,” he said.

Still, Hetes acknowledges workouts “can be tough. You really know what you’re about to put your body through.”

LLHS senior Sol Romero says she “kind of got bored with the 100 free,” so she is focusing on the butterfly.

“I really like the 100 fly. It’s really hard,” Romero said. “My shoulders feel like they’re numb by the end.”

The Tigers, Jaguars and Eagles will be in their home pool Saturday at the annual Belen Invitational, part of a five week stretch of meets each weekend.