Sedona Red Rock High School’s swimming team was put up against solid Division III competition, taking third at a four-way meet at home on Thursday, Sept. 7.

Hosting Seton Catholic Preparatory High School, Northland Preparatory Academy and BASIS Flagstaff, a number of Scorpions dropped time in their events, however the strength and depth of their opponents outdid them.

“I think it was a good test for us. Seton Catholic being No. 1 team in the state last year and NPA being about our size it was definitely a good test,” Scorpions head coach A. Jay Bronson said.

Red Rock’s girls [110] and boys [68] both placed third, and their combined team score was 178, behind first place Seton Catholic [266] and second place Northland Prep [262].

BASIS only had a girls team, which finished with 98 points.

Top finishes on the girls side included the 200 medley relay team of junior Zoe Porteous, freshman Dezra Dana, freshman Jaxon Oles and sophomore Soleil Metcalf. They took second in 2:06.84, barely a second behind Northland Prep’s team [2:05.22].

Dana took third in the 200 freestyle [2:20.10] while Porteous was second in the 200 individual medley [2:27.79]. Porteous also took first in the 100 backstroke by more than three seconds [1:07.31].

Dana was third in the 100 breaststroke at 1:24.53.
Holowacz claimed fourth in her best event, the 100 freestyle, in 1:06.15.

The 200 freestyle relay team of Holowacz, Ellie Seip, Dana and Brittany Medel tied for second with Seton Catholic in 2:02.31.

“Really happy with how the girls performed and same with the guys were progressing really well,” Bronson said. “We’ve still got two months left before the end of the season so we’ve got a lot room and time to improve.”

The much more inexperienced boys came up against stronger competition than they saw in Chandler Preparatory Academy on Aug. 31.

Freshman Andrew Tate took second in the 200 freestyle in 1:57.44, a fast time for only the second meet of the season. It was his first time swimming the event this year as well.

He also swam the 500 freestyle in 5:18.47, a drop of more than six seconds from Aug. 31.

Senior first-year swimmer Winston Cox saw a significant time drop in the 50 freestyle, despite taking fourth. Cox finished in 26.56 — on Aug. 31 he went 28.00 — a big drop for a sprint event in a matter of a week.

Another strong performance came from the 200 freestyle relay team, which took second in 1:44.94. Seton Catholic was way out in front, taking first in 1:40.19.

Sophomore Zach Dana swam the 100 breaststroke for the first time and finished third [1:16.25].

“The week before [against Chandler Prep] we saw some good competition at our level but a few of those races blew us out of the water,” Bronson said. “Which kind of lit a fire under some people. So I think it got them kind of in the mood to work harder and see that there’s some great competition and that we need to rise to that occasion.”

The team traveled to the Northwest Arizona Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 9, in Kingman, but due to lightning the Scorpions discontinued participation after just a few events.

The girls 200 medley relay team of Porteous, Dezra Dana, Oles and Metcalf took first overall in 2:07.04. The boys team took fifth.

Metcalf and Dezra Dana were second and third, respectively, in the 200 freestyle. Tate took second in the same event for the boys.