Bragging rights until next season for three Northern Arizona high school swimming teams were handed out on Tuesday, Oct. 17, at the Sedona Community Pool.

Sedona Red Rock High School came out on the wrong end of its two matchups — dropping the Heisley/Estes Cup against Mingus Union High School and the S.S. Elevation Cup against Northland Preparatory Academy.

“Our kids swam their hearts out, they worked hard and I was really impressed with how close we made it to Mingus,” Scorpions head coach A. Jay Bronson said. “Especially realizing they are four times our size, I think we did pretty darn good.”

The Scorpions fell to Mingus 106-82 for the trophy and competition named after the founders of the teams’ respective programs: Erin Estes [Red Rock] and Rick Heisley [Mingus].

Northland Prep won the S.S. Elevation Cup 121-67.

The lone race-winners for the Scorpions were in the 500-yard freestyle. Sophomore Soleil Metcalf won in 6:13.40 while freshman Andrew Tate won in 5:30.88.

Other standouts were in the girls 200-yard medley relay, comprised of junior Zoe Porteous, freshman Dezra Dana, freshman Jaxon Oles and Metcalf. The team took second in 2:05.63.

Dana [2:17.91] and Metcalf [2:21.94] were second and third, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle, which comes right after the boys medley relay.

Tate [2:01.41] was also second in the 200 freestyle.

The boys 200-yard freestyle relay touched in at 1:52.03, good for second place as well. That team was made up of seniors Winston Cox, Charlie Parrella and Guilherme Garcia, as well as junior Sameer Sanjani.

The girls 400-yard freestyle relay took second [4:14.88], which was made up of Porteous, Dana, Oles and Metcalf.
The boys 400 freestyle relay [3:55.35] finished in the same spot. Senior Parker Reed, Tate, Cox and Zach Dana formed that quartet.

The last time Red Rock won the Heisley/Estes Cup was in 2014.

The meet also marked senior day for the Scorpions. Nine were honored: Captain Brittany Medel, Mia Sadler, Michael Ortega, Sasha Conway, Justin Wassell, Garcia, Cox, Parrella and Reed.

Reed was one of the few four-year swimmers on the team, who looks to extend his season by qualifying for the Division III state meet via the Small School Championships on Saturday, Oct. 21, at Phoenix Country Day School.

“It’s kind of sad, I’m going to miss it,” said Reed of swimming at the Sedona pool. “It hasn’t set in yet. I’m still absorbing it; I probably will at the team dinner.”

There was some positive news recently for Reed, though, who was formally known as Sarah Reed until earlier this year. Reed is a transgender boy and has swum in boys races all season long.

On Monday, Oct. 16, the Arizona Interscholastic Association executive board approved his appeal for eligibility to officially compete in boys races, which comes with a maximum of two meets left in his season.

“It’s going to be fun. I’m really excited for that,” Reed said.

While Saturday might be his last ever prep competition, it was still important that he get the approval.

“These are official meets now, so if I didn’t get approval I’d have to swim as a girl, so it would be really uncomfortable for me,” said Reed, who was somewhat nervous he would not win the appeal. “I think it’s helpful for anyone else who’s transgender and wants to swim.”

Bronson shared Reed’s sentiments.

“I think its really important not only for Parker but for the state to be able to address this issue and make a good decision, especially in favor for the kid,” he said. “As a swimmer I think it’s awesome that Parker is going to have the ability to swim at an invitational.”

Check back next week for results from Saturday’s meet as well as a list of the Scorpions swimmers who qualified for the Division III state meet.