Tankers use freestyle events, relays to rack up points against tough competition

Three Tooele High men swimmers finished in the top 19 in the 100-yard backstroke, and three others finished in the top 20 in the 100-yard freestyle Saturday to help propel the Buffs to a fifth-place finish at the 4A State Swimming Championships Saturday at BYU.

The boys scored 144.5 points, good enough for fifth place, while Tooele's women placed 12th at the state competition.

Stefen Chavalier and Skyler Smith each recorded their best times ever in the backstroke to finish eighth and 13th respectively while Casey McEachern placed 19th.  In the 100 freestyle, Mat Snar finished 12th, Jordan Knighton 16th and Gilbert Nichols 20th. Snar was just 7/100th of a second off his best time ever and Knighton's time was a personal record. Matt Ricci and Knighton hit lifetime bests in the 50-yard freestyle to place fifth and 19th respectively. Steven Chevalier shaved six seconds off his previous best time in the 500 freestyle to finish 14th.

Tooele's women also shined in freestyle events with Mary Burden finishing fifth in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free. Amber Skelton swam a lifetime best in the 200 free to place 20th.

"The boys finished as high as we could have possibly hoped for. I was hoping the girls would be able to finish in the top 10, but we just couldn't pull it off," coach Mel Roberts said.

Springville won the state title in boys competition followed by Snow Canyon, Murray, Mountain Crest and the Buffs. East claimed the girls title with Murray second and Timpview third.

All of Tooele's relay teams clocked their best times of the year at the state meet.

Smith, Chevalier, Dustin Perkins and Ricci placed sixth in the 200 yard medley. Courtney Stubbs, Tiffani Smith, Erika Andrews and Burden placed ninth in the 200 medley relay. Andrews, Skelton, Smith and Burden placed eighth in the 200 free relay. Ricci, Nichols, Knighton and Snarr placed fourth in the 200-yard relay. Skelton, Stubbs, Kaytlyn Murphy and Stephanie Lee finished 14th in the 400-yard free relay. Nichols, Knighton, Chevalier and Snarr placed sixth in the 400 free relay.

Andrews and Stubbs were just off their best times in the 100 butterfly. Stubbs and Murphy both had lifetime bests in the 100 backstroke.

Tooele had high expectations in the breaststroke events, but all of the swimmers were just off their personal bests and didn't place as high as expected.

"It was a much faster meet than any of us have ever experienced before and I Believe we tried to make changes in the way we swam our races which really hurt us,' Roberts said. "We needed to swim the same way we had been practicing all year. Trying to hard or trying something different is disastrous in championship meets. Any changes have to be throughout the season."

The coach said many of his swimmers were disappointed with the results. "I should have prepared them better for the competition level of the 4A classification. There are so many more high-level programs and we will need to make some changes in the program in order to be able to compete with them."

Roberts said it will be difficult to replace the 15 seniors on this year's team. "We do have lots of freshmen and sophomores who will be returning next year and with one year under their belt are anxious to have their chance again next year," the coach said.

Prior to the season, Roberts was a bit concerned about how things would turn out this year. "We had a good season. Every year we learn that some changes are going to have to be made to make next year's swimmers better and ready for the competition they will face. Working with these young swimmers and watching them develop is one of the real pleasures of coaching and keep us (coaches) coming back year after year."

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com