Carson boys swim takes second

Jamie Engan won the girls 500-yard freestyle and Carson High School's boys placed second in the boys team standings during the Northern 4A Regional Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday afternoon at the Carson Aquatic Facility.

Engan cruised to first-place in the 500, winning by 11 seconds in a time of 5 minutes, 5.60 seconds as Carson swept three of the top four places in the race.

Also, Kiel Costella placed second in the boys 500 freestyle and was part of a third-place team in the 400 freestyle relay as Carson edged arch rival Douglas for second-place by 10 points in the boys team standings. Reno easily won the boys team title with 400 points, while Carson edged Douglas for second, 252-242, and Galena finished fourth with 229.

"We had a great day," Carson coach Monica Weaver said. "We had a lot of great drops in our times today."

Reno was just as dominant in the girls competition, as the Huskies outdistanced McQueen 489-326 for the team championship, while Galena finished third with 257 points and Carson fourth with 250.5 points.

The top three finishers in each event qualified for the NIAA State Championships next Saturday at UNLV.

The Douglas boys were paced by a gold medal performance in the 200 freestyle relay. The Tigers clocked in at 1:32.54, two seconds faster than runner-up Fallon, with the quartet of Trevor Schaff (23.4), Hayes Wilson (24.1), Justin White (23.3) and Andy Sturgess (21.7). At the end of the day, the same group placed second behind Reno in the 400 freestyle relay with a season-best time of 3:26.76.

Sturgess also placed second in the 100 freestyle (47.87) and third in the 50 freestyle (22.52). Schaff, a junior, also placed second in the 100 butterfly with a personal best 56.89 to help the Tigers to their third-place finish as a team.

"For only having eight boys, finishing 10 points behind Carson was pretty darn good," Douglas coach Kirk Chiapella said.

For Carson, Engan led a wave of Carson blue to the finish of the girls 500 freestyle. Teammate Lauren Metcalf finished third in a personal best 5:16.35, just .08 out of second-place, and Rebekah Niehoff took fourth in 5:20.71.

Engan also placed second in the 200 individual medley with a 2:09.39 clocking, two seconds behind Reed junior Katy Houston (2:07.20). Houston is the two-time defending state champion in the event.

Another highlight for Carson was freshman John Wandel, who placed second in the 200 freestyle and lowered his personal best by four seconds with a 1:51.74 effort. Wandel also placed fourth in the 100 freestyle in 49.78, less than four-tenths out of third-place and a trip to state.

Jake Oxoby placed third in the 100 butterfly in 57.57 and Jeff Stroup took fourth in the 500 freestyle in 4:06.16, less than two seconds out of third-place and a state berth. Costella, Wandel, Oxoby and Andrew Cardinal placed third in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:30.27.

Depth and improvement played a big part in the runner-up finish by the Carson boys. For example, freshman Ian Murdock and Mark Malikowski contributed points with their ninth and 10th place finishes as they turned personal record times of 2:12.18 and 2:14.73 respectively.

"Mark is a first-year swimmer and he improved his time by 10 seconds over the weekend," Weaver said of Malikowski, who is a junior.

In the 200 I.M., Stroup finished 10th (2:20.15) and Adrian Zeh 11th (2:21.65, a seven-second improvement) for Carson.

On the girls side, Carson's 200 freestyle relay team of Niehoff, Engan, Kathleen Wandel and Hilary Schlager placed third in 1:43.20 to qualify for state. Schlager, a sophomore, placed fourth in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.63), Kathleen Wandel placed fifth in the 50 freestyle (26.02) and Jessica Goddard was seventh in the 100 butterfly (1:05.73).