Senior Girls from left, Libby Nolen, Sadie Evans, Sophia Pieck, Allie Holland, Lena Ronning and Nuala Colgan at in the 16th Annual Bill Hudson Memorial Swim/Dive Invite held Dec. 6-7 in the Los Alamos Aquatic Center. The event hosted 10 teams from around the area. The Boys team finished in first place with 501 points and the Girls team finished in 2nd place with 469 points. Courtesy/Sandy Hurlocker
Zane Pederson in the 200 freestyle relay. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
By SANDY HURLOCKER
Toppers Swim And Dive Team
On Dec. 6 and 7, the Hilltopper Swim and Dive Team celebrated this year’s seniors while hosting the Hudson Memorial Invitational swim/dive meet. The boys took first place ahead of Academy and Farmington. The girls placed second behind Academy and ahead of Farmington.
Strong performances by seniors led the way.
Lena Ronning led each of the girls relay squads to second place finishes (200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay), while placing third in the 200 IM. Sophia Pieck finished second in the 200 freestyle.
For the boys, William Borovina led the all-senior 400 freestyle relay squad to a first place finish, along with fellow seniors Ian Corey, Tyghe Tripp and Harry McKigney. Seniors Takeshi Shiina and Zane Pederson led the boys 200 freestyle relay squad to first place, making a state cut in the effort.
Senior Asher Koh took the top spot in the diving competition.
One other first place finish came with sophomore Thomas Daligault in the boys 100 Breaststroke, with a state qualifying time.
“We had top-four finishes in almost every event, which shows the team depth and willingness to push themselves against some very solid competition,” Head Coach Pat Brug said.
Seven new meet records were set, six by visiting teams, Brug noted. In the 200 freestyle, Zane Pederson came in second behind Academy swimmer Soren Carlson, but both swimmers beat the meet record.
“That’s a great swim and it was already faster than last year’s state swim time,” Coach Brug said.
Other senior team members who swam their last Topper meet at Walkup Aquatic Center are Libby Nolen, Allie Holland, Nuala Colgan, Sadie Evans, Tyghe Tripp and Jace Kerstiens.
Overall the Hudson Invitational saw 15 new State Qualifiers:
- Girls 200 Freestyle: Sophia Pieck
- Boys 200 Freestyle: Zane (0.1s faster than state last year)
- Girls 200 Individual Medley: – Lena, Alma Hurlocker, Sonya Pakin
- Boys 200 Individual Medley: Takeshi Shiina
- Boys 100 Butterly: Zane
- Girls 100 Freestyle: Lena (timed during relay lead off)
- Boys 100 Freestyle: Thomas Daligault
- Girls 500 Freestyle: Grace Nowell
- Girls 200 Freestyle Relay – Lena, Catherine Price, Allie Holland, Sophia
- Boys 200 Freestyle Relay(s) – Thomas, Takeshi, Sam Nowell, Zane, Ammon Lee, Zach Sestric, Jace Kerstiens, Tyghe Tripp
- Boys 100 Backstroke: Takeshi
- Boys 100 Backstroke: Thomas
- Girls 400 Freestyle Relay: Lena, Deb Brug, Catherine Price, Sophia
“This was a great job,” Coach Brug said, “especially since we had a super hard practice week coming off of a long Thanksgiving weekend with no swimming.”
“I want to thank the swimmers, officials and volunteers who helped pull off this meet,” Brug said. “it really does take a community effort to make a swim meet happen and we had compliments from every visiting team including some saying this is their favorite meet of the year! Albuquerque Academy came for the first time and came for ‘better competition!’”
The meet is named after Bill Hudson. Bill was a PE teacher in the public schools starting in 1949 and started our swim team in 1955. He had a passion for the outdoors and exemplified the New Mexico outdoor lifestyle. Bill was also the Los Alamos cross-country coach. He came up with the idea for the Los Alamos triathlon while running the Pike’s Peak Marathon in 1974 as a way to have the cross-country and swim teams cross-train with each other.
Coach Brug said, “I personally competed with Bill at the Los Alamos triathlon for over 12 years. And he was always sporting the latest and greatest pair of running shoes and a huge smile.”
There is no better way to honor Bill than by having a great swim meet where we all work hard, push each other to our physical limits and have great fun doing it.”
Bill died in 2015.
Deb Brug at the start of the 200 medley relay with the team finishing 2nd for this heat. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Sophia Pieck competing in the 200 freestyle relay. The relay team finished in 2nd for their heat. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Lena Ronning swims the Butterfly in the 200 IM event. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Samantha Clayton swimming the 100 freestyle finishing 1st. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Zane Pederson swimming the butterfly in the 100 event finishing 2nd. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Grace Nowell swimming in the 500 freestyle finishing 1st. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Kohn Asher competing in the diving competition finishing 1st with 204.35 points. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com
Cora Perkins competing in the diving completion finished 11th with 132.6 points. There were 16 divers in this event. Photo by John McHale/ladailypost.com