Sunday, Dec. 14, marked just another winter swimming meet filled with first place finishes for 12-year-old Sedona Swordfish swimmers Andrew Tate and Emma Warner.

“Andrew is swimming his best right now,” Swordfish head coach A. Jay Bronson said of Tate, who won the 50-yard breaststroke in under 42 seconds. “If they were in high school right now, Emma would be one of the top four on my team, where Andrew would be a bit further down on the depth chart.”

That estimation can be attributed to Warner’s five first-place finishes — in the 200-yard freestyle as well as the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke and individual medley events at the five-team competition at Glendale Community College.

“I really can’t wait for high school for them,” Bronson said. “If they keep working as hard as they have been, they will both be superstars.”

For the first time in Tate’s and Warner’s 11- to 12-year-old age group, however, they were not alone. With a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard backstroke, 12-year-old Jaxon Oles joined them in the top eight.

For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Dec. 17, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.