Tooele qualified eight girls and nine boys for the 4A State Swimming Championships Friday and Saturday at BYU. The Buffs will have entries in every event except three.

Coach Mel Roberts summed up the competition and how he feels his swimmers will fare this weekend.

200 Medley Relay - The girls relay team of Courtney Stubbs, Tiffani Smith, Erika Andrews and Mary Burden and the boys relay team of Skyler Smith, Dustin Perkins, Stefen Chevalier and Matt Ricci should both finish in the top six.

200 Freestyle - Amber Skelton is looking good in practice and should be able to bring home the last 100 yards fast enough to score.

200 Individual Medley - Tiffani Smith will need to drop her time about three seconds to score, but with a good fly and backstroke leg, she can do it. Mat Snarr and Gilbert Nichols should both score for Tooele with Snarr having a good chance to medal.

50 Freestyle - Burden is seeded third in a tightly bunched field of the top four while Andrews is in good position to score for us. Ricci is seeded fourth in an event where the third-to-17th-place qualifiers are all within one second of each other.

100 Butterfly - Andrews and Courtney Stubbs both had good swims at region but should go even faster. Andrews could move into the top eight and Stubbs could move up to a scoring position.

100 Freestyle - Burden is once again seeded third in a tightly bunched field for the top six positions. Snarr, Nichols and Jordan Knighton are all seeded in scoring positions, but all three can go faster than their seeded times and move up.

500 Freestyle - Skelton is the first alternate for the girls and Chevalier can move up into scoring position with a four-to-five second drop.

200 Free Relay - Andrews, Skelton, Smith and Burden should drop under the 1:50 mark and move into the top six. Ricci, Nichols, Knighton and Snarr will be in the battle for first to third place in this event and a new varsity record could be established.

100 Backstroke - Stubbs and Murphy are seeded 23rd and 24th, so the only place they can go is up in the standings. Chevalier has a good chance to medal and freshmen Casey McEachern and Skyler Smith should both score for the Buffs.

100 Breaststroke - Tiffani Smith will score and possibly finish in the top eight with the improvement in her stroke she has made the past two weeks. Kylei Riding is the first alternate in this event. Perkins and Ricci are seeded in the top six and should be in the battle to win the event. Michael Jensen has a good time-drop in him and if it comes out, he should score.

400 Freestyle Relay - Skelton, Stubbs, Murphy and Stephanie Lee have the potential to drop under 4:10 and into the top 10 in this event. Nichols, Knighton, Chevalier and Snarr should put it all together and drop under the 3:30 mark to challenge for fourth place.

According to the coach, Timpview and East will battle it out for the girls championship with Mountain Crest and Springville finishing in the top five. Tooele could finish as high as seventh or eighth.

In the boys competition, Springville, Murray, Mountain Crest and Snow Canyon are the top four with Tooele, Orem, Woods Cross and Olympus battling it out for fifth.

"This has been a great group of swimmers to work with," Roberts said. "Many of the seniors came into the program with little or no experience and through hard work and dedication have developed into outstanding swimmers. They have been an example of what is possible to the younger swimmers and a source of inspiration for the entire team. They will truly be missed next year."

Roberts said 4A swimming is highly competitive and that many swimmers in the 4A ranks started at a young age in country club leagues.

"We are going to have to come up with something to get more swimmers involved earlier than high school if we are going to compete at this level," he said.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com