Scottsdale Clinches Combined Team Title at 2019 4 Corners Sectionals

by Eamonn Keenan 10

March 25th, 2019 Club, National, News

2019 4 CORNERS SPEEDO SECTIONALS – PHOENIX

The final session of the 2019 4 Corners Speedo Sectionals at Phoenix concluded with the men’s and women’s 1650, 50 free, 200 IM and 400 medley relays. Phoenix Swim Club took home the men’s team title, amassing 1481.5 to comfortably outscore Scottsdale’s 1114 points. Scottsdale dominated the team standings on the women’s side, however, posting 1206 to Phoenix’s 797.5 points.

Despite the discrepancies among the men’s and women’s team scores, Scottsdale barely walked away from the final session as the combined team champions, as their total score of 2320 points was merely 41 points greater than Phoenix’s runner-up score of 2279.

Final Team Standings:

Boys Top 5:

  1. Phoenix Swim Club – 1481.5
  2. Scottsdale Aquatic Club – 1114
  3. Kamehameha Swim Club – 978.5
  4. Elevation Athletics – 685
  5. Mesa Aquatic Club – 422.5

Girls Top 5:

  1. Scottsdale Aquatic Club –  1206
  2. Phoenix Swim Club – 797.5
  3. Kamehameha Swim Club – 559
  4. Flatiron Athletic Club – 515
  5. Pitchfork Aquatics – 510

Girls Meet

After winning the 1000 free on night one, as well as claiming the runner-up spot in the 500 free, 15 year old Mia Rankin of Phoenix took a commanding win in the women’s mile, clocking a 16:36.49. She finished over 14 seconds ahead of Foothill’s Kathryn Shanley, who was the final swimmer in the field under 17 minutes, with her second place time of 16:50.60. K

On top of sweeping both the 100 and 200 butterflies, Kamehameha’s Grace Monahan claimed the top spot in the 200 IM, touching the wall at 2:00.76. Rachel Butler out of Cottonwood Heights notched her highest finish of the meet, as her 2:01.23 would earn her second in the race.

Scottsdale Aquatic Club went 1-2 in the final individual event, the 50 free. 16 year old teammates Greer Pattison and Ashely Strouse hit the pad at 23.19 and 23.32, respectively. This marked Pattison’s first individual win of the meet.

The two would also go on to be apart of Scottsdale’s winning 400 medely relay team: Pattison (54.12), Riley Courtney (1:04.71), Ashely Catchpole (56.06) and Strouse (48.61) combined for a final time of 3:43.50. Kamehamea’s quartet of Andrea Zeebe (55.85), Jamy Lum (1:04.37), Grace Monahan (53.15) and Sofia Carlson (51.54) finished in 3:44.91 for the runner-up spot.

Boys Meet

Kamehamea’s Michael Petrides, the 500 free champion, and Darwin Anderson of the Cache Valley Marlins duked it out in the men’s 1650 all the way to the finish. Despite Anderson charging home in a swift 25.34, Petrides held on for the win, as the two registered final times of 15:32.50 and 15:33.33.

15 year old Zachary Tan of Phoenix completed his sweep of the IM events with his victory in the 200 IM, stopping the clock at 1:47.95. He outpaced a hand-full of 1:48s: Pitchfork’s Jarod Arroyo (1:48.27), YMCA Westside’s Jadan Nabor (1:48.83), Scottsdale’s Jordan Tiffany (1:48.84), and Elevation Athletic’s Lukas Miller (1:48.95).

Three-time champion at the 2018 South African National Meet Douglas Erasmus, who is representing Phoenix Swim Club, narrowly won the 50 free with his final time of 20.10 over Olympus Aquatics’s Catalin Angur – a recent Utah graduate from Romania – who touched at 20.20.

Phoenix Swim Club closed out the meet with a 1-2 finish in the 400 medley relay from their A and B teams. The A relay, consisting of Meta Milovanovic (50.29), Youssef El Kamash (54.05), Giles Smith (46.88), and Erasmus (44.39), recorded a final time of 3:15.61 for the win. The B squad of Zachary Tan (51.34), U.S. National Teamer Kevin Cordes (52.64), Kolbe Bayless (50.19) and Mazen El Kamash (44.21) touched behind the A at 3:18.38.

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anonymous
5 years ago

Maricopia County has a lot of the population in Arizona. So, a team there is more likely to win the sectionals than the Tucson or Prescott area.

issa metaphor
5 years ago

SCOTTSDALE DONT NEED NO PROS THEY TAKE BIG DUBZ.

Sunny
5 years ago

🙂 Not cloudy at all. Actually I couldn’t be more proud of SAC. Big portion of SAC swimmers took part in the Central Zone Speedo Sectional the week before. But they came together as a team and they “barely walked away … as the combined team champions.” Kinda was thinking of not very objective representation of the meet and the overall SAC win. That is all.

Was thinking about fair meet representation more in line with an earlier posted article – https://swimswam.com/pros-and-age-groupers-to-collide-at-phoenix-sectionals-psych-sheets/

I second all points made below about elite swimmers and PSC attracting them. More power to PSC, no doubt about it. Actually I admire PSC about that part. It just seemed that half… Read more »

Sccoach
5 years ago

traveling all year costs money and these pro swimmers aren’t exactly raking it in. I’d rather stay in Arizona in favor of traveling to Richmond or Des Moines where there has been tons of storms this winter

Sunny
5 years ago

Omitting the fact that PSC brought 7 elite swimmers over 18 years, either US Olympic Trials finalists or other countries national team members does make it less “comfortably” sweeping as a victory. Throwing former NCAA D I champions against high school swimmers seems more like desperation to win. I understand that the elite swimmers maybe need to check where they are in the season, but putting them on relay teams A & B is a bit too much.
Here is the list of those elite swimmers – Brad Tandy (the guy from South Africa with the insanely fast start and PAC 12 finalist), Douglas Erasmus (South Africa’s champion in 50 fly, 100 free), Ken Barcinas (Guam athlete training for… Read more »

betesty
Reply to  Sunny
5 years ago

There is another side of this too. Being able to swim next to an Elite swimmer is inspiring some will never get that chance again. Others are motivated and take it to the next level because they swam with an elite swimmer and worked hard to improve. Either way young kids look up to elite swimmers and getting a chance to swim in the same heat is a dream come true. Remember all those elite swimmers were kids too and looked up to other swimmers. Nobody wins all the time even elite swimmers lose.

Cromo
Reply to  Sunny
5 years ago

Scottsdale AC has had their share of “ringers” thru the years, all part of the sectionals game and meet.

Guy
Reply to  Cromo
5 years ago

Examples?

Ex PSC Guy
Reply to  Sunny
5 years ago

They train there and there’s no crime in having those swimmers competing when they are being sponsored to train. PSC should be proud they have an environment and pool that facilitates elite swimmers to want to be there. Sad that people are sour grapes about it. I would relish the opportunity for my kids to train alongside folks like Giles Smith (I don’t know the rest of them too well). He’s a great swimmer and even better person.

Sunny seems a bit more Cloudy
Reply to  Sunny
5 years ago

Sounds like you are a bit bitter at this point. FORD Aquatics always brought the collegiate and professional swimmers too. The meet is open to USA registered athletes. If you or your kid doesn’t like losing to someone that is considered a “professional” well it may be best to choose something else. Like comic book reading or another venture where they won’t be in competition with anyone else.
Instead of complaining about racing “professionals” have your swimmers look at the way they prepare, look at their meticulous attention to details. Use them as models of success as opposed to feeling sorry they were beaten by faster and older swimmers. You create the narrative on this. Do you think your… Read more »