Sedona Red Rock High School swimmer Colin Hurkett will have a senior year tale to end them all someday.

Hurkett, co-record holder for SRRHS in the 50-yard freestyle from the state swimming meet Nov. 12, is in the running to be a National Merit Scholar after a held passport made him miss a medical mission of mercy the last week of January to the alleged “murder capital of the world” — San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

All before his 18th birthday, Friday, May 23, at which time Hurkett should know if he has won the National Merit Scholar award. As one of about 8,000 finalists, he already is guaranteed to receive $60,000 over the next four years at the University of Arizona, where he plans to be a pre-medical physiology major and help coach Ford Aquatics, a club swimming team.

“Being able to go back and do what I want, I’m kind of excited to get down there, because I’m only taking one legitimate class right now,” said Hurkett, who moved to Sedona just after his eighth-grade graduation from east Tucson, where he lived and swam for a decade until the age of 14.

After rehabilitating a torn labrum he suffered last summer, Hurkett finished sixth in the boys 100-yard freestyle and then swam “the fastest he’s gone,” according to his head swimming coach A. Jay Bronson, tying the SRRHS record in the 50-yard freestyle at the Division II state tournament with a time of 22.68 seconds.

“He’s done an amazing job this year after his injury,” Bronson said. “He’s been able to come back and lead the team.

“One of the big things was he wanted a school record of his own and now he gets his name up there … with his own accreditation,” he added. “With Colin getting the school record … I’m ecstatic with how it ended.”

Then the time came for Hurkett to undertake his senior year medical project. After a two-week November experience shadowing family friend Dr. Ted Rasoumoff and his team of anesthesiologists in Tucson, a medical mission to Guatemala that, according to Rasoumoff, “didn’t pan out,” led Hurkett to plan a trip to accompany Rasoumoff and his surgical team of 40 medical students during the last week of January to a hospital just outside of San Pedro Sula in northwestern Honduras — the country’s second-largest city.

For the full story, please see the Wednesday, March 12, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.