After getting their feet wet in the season opening virtual swim meet, Sedona Red Rock High School’s swim team was back in the water at their home Sedona Community Pool on Thursday, Oct. 1 for another one.
This virtual meet came against a pair of Tempe schools, Tempe High School and Tempe Prep. The SRRHS boys were victorious over both teams while the girls lost to the Knights [Tempe Prep] but defeated the Buffaloes [Tempe High School].
Coach Dan Morse was out of town for the meet but adjusted parts of the lineup before he left, putting some of his top swimmers in different races than normal. He put senior Andrew Tate in the 100 breaststroke, moved junior Louise “Breezy” Taylor from the 500 freestyle to the 200 and tweaked the relays. Morse did this for a multitude of reasons, including trying to gain a competitive edge.
“I didn’t want to give them the same races every single week because they will kind of get bored with the same races,” Morse said. “So I try to switch it up a little bit.”
“The 500 free is kind of tough, so I figured I’d give Breezy a break on that for a week,” he added. “It was Andrew’s first 100 breaststroke in a long time. We weren’t expecting anything crazy fast considering he hasn’t trained too much in the breaststroke. But he won it. That’s why I put him in it. That was one of the reasons we mixed things up, too. We had to figure out how to win some things.”
The times the Sedona swimmers put up were similar to what they had done in the season opening meet against Northland Prep Academy. Given that they had undertaken a challenging week of practice, they were OK with the results.
“It was a huge training week for us,” senior Jamie Alagna said. “So we didn’t really have any taper days before the meet. We weren’t expecting to go our fastest. We were kind of expecting to just compete. We still won both. It was a hard training day but we still came out on top. That was cool.”
The competitive aspect of the season is something that even the more experienced swimmers are still adjusting to with no opponents in the water with them.
“It’s really kind of hard to tell how the season is going,” senior Eric Schrader said. “We don’t have a real meet to base it off of. But I think things are going well. But from what I’ve seen in the time trial meets, we’ve gone faster than we went last year. That’s all you can hope for.”
A more familiar style of competition is potentially on the way.
In their next swim meet, the Scorpions are scheduled to host Payson on Thursday, Oct. 15. The final details are still being ironed out but the current plan is for it to be an in-person meet. Because both teams are relatively small, they can be in the pool and on the deck at the same time while still adhering to the 50-person maximum.
Additionally, Sedona recently found out that the state meet will also be in person on Sunday, Nov. 7 — albeit in a slightly different format. The top 24 swimmers in each event will qualify for state. Races will be done in heats and without preliminaries, so it’s possible that the winner and runner-up of any given race won’t actually compete head-on-head.
Coming into the season, Morse knew that he had a strong nucleus of swimmers but has been impressed by some newcomers. One is Kaden Rice, a transfer from California who the coach said he didn’t meet until the first day of practice. Rice being a sophomore will also be helpful for the Scorpions going forward as, with the exception of Rice and fellow sophomore Carlos Lattanzi, the boys team is made up entirely of seniors.
Among the girls, Morse has been happy with the progress of senior Tiana Trujillo. He also lauded senior newcomer Lesley Suarez for not only her improvements in the pool but also spirit on the deck where she’s, according to Morse, the team’s “No. 1 cheerleader.”
Additionally, while the Scorpions do miss having normal meets, they’re also happy to be having any kind of a season.
“We’ve had a pretty good showing seeing that we’re still in a pandemic,” senior Molly Wiseman said. “I think everyone on our team wants to be together, be happy and wants to try our best in the season. We try to have as much fun as we can with it. It’s more enthusiastic when other schools are here. That kind of is a bummer. But we still get to swim, still get to practice and we still get to have meets, which is fun.”
