The Sedona Red Rock High School boys’ and girls’ swim teams will dive into the start of a new season on Thursday, Aug. 31, at 4 p.m. at the Sedona Community Pool against teams from Winslow High School and area rival Mingus Union High School. This will be the first season with new Head Coach Jodi “Jato” Thornton leading the Scorpions, who brings decades of experience to the job, along with silver and bronze medals from the National Sports Festival.

“[My] short-term goal for the program is to help these athletes achieve the best they can this season to help our juniors get the best opportunities going forward to college,” Thornton said. “We have some rockstar freshmen who are eating up this training, and making all kinds of improvements this early in the season where we’ve been thundered out most of the time. It’s going to be interesting to see what becomes of them over the course of four years.”

Thornton has been a swimmer since she was 10 and competed at the national level. While she is aiming to impart the skills needed to succeed in the water to her students, she also stressed that preparing them to excel on the land is just as important, citing her own experiences.

“I was going to nationals and also training for high school,” Thornton said. “By the time I was 17, I had bursitis in both shoulders [and a] blown-out adrenal system. I was so sick. Part of what brings me to help train this level is so that they understand balance and recovery in their life. It’s not all about just getting in the pool and tearing it up. It’s about keeping balance, allowing your body to recover and self-care, eating right and sleeping right.”

 Many of the students on the team are focused on setting new school records and getting the team to state.

“I feel like [the program] has been going in a good direction,” junior Alana Schrader said. “Because last year, we had so many new records with the relays and a lot of our swimmers placed at state. This year, I’m assuming we’re also going to be placing well and having good relays, because it’s mostly the same swimmers.”

Among the new faces this season will be rookie junior Yemayasil Guadarrama.

“I wanted to get back into swimming and I just wanted to be active somehow with the school,” Guadarrama said. “My big goal is to just have fun, do my best andmake the most of my time this season. My older brother[Benigo Guadarrama] inspired me to join the swim team. Because he swam since he was very young and he swam all four years in high school.”

Over the summer, team members Bryce Kirk, Colin Ledbetter and Leo Wesley went to Boise, Idaho to compete in sectionals. They hope to translate competing at the national level into local success in the fall.

Sarina McCullough, a senior, also qualified for sectionals although wasn’t able to attend. She is now looking forward to breaking SRRHS records.

“My goal is to break every record I can,” McCullough said. “I have [several] technically with my USA Swimming time, but I haven’t done them during high school season. I want to have my name up on the board. I know I’m capable of — I’ve had a rough couple years. So my goal is just to drop time and have a good senior year and get into my dream college.”

McCullough was also unable to attend sectionals in Oklahoma in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic response, and afterward she struggled with swimming.

“I had to move away from my family, just to swim up in Anthem,” McCullough said. “Then I could barely train properly. It was just not a good environment, my team kind of fell apart. After that, I almost quit swimming. I started to build back and we had a lot more members like Leo and Colin, they all started to join the team, our team grew. That’s what kept me going was the bond that the team had. We’re all pushing each other and supporting each other.”

Bryce Kirk felt that he faced similar challenges after getting sick last season and sensing that he failed to reach his potential at state.

“It was really disappointingfor me,” Kirk said. “I felt like I let down the team, but this year it’s my redemption arc. My goal would probably be to win the 100 fly. That’s the major motive and it’s my senior year. So this is my time to shine and do my best … And I think our relay has the potential to do well, especially with our new guy, Keldon [Cain].”

For Cain, discipline is one of his biggest goals, along with improving his cardio.

I’ve never done competitive swimming before,” Cain said. “But I like to think that I’m fast when it comes to sprints. I thought [this would] be a good experience to learn something new.”

Senior Leo Wesley said that his goal for the season is to set the school record in the 50 meter freestyle, but he also said that he sees the potential for team success.

“We’re going to have a pretty good relay,” Wesley said. “I want all the new swimmers to enjoy it and have as much fun as I did. [To] have goals and reach those goals and to push themselves.”

2023-24 SRRHS Swim Team Roster

Yemayasil Guadarrama
Lucy “Clay” Hansbraugh
Sarina McCullough
Zinnia Mykkanen
Alana Schrader
Nia Trujillo
Keldon Cain
Bruno Garcia-Lara
Bryce Kirk
Colin Ledbetter
Leo Wesley
Head Coach: Jodi Thornton