Carson swimmers solid in the pool

Jamie Engan is Carson High's female version of John Paul Jones. She hasn't really yet begun to fight.

Engan cruised to two wins for the Senator girls swim team, saving herself for next week's NIAA 4A State Championships, to lead a solid effort by Carson at the Northern 4A meet on Saturday at the Carson Aquatic Center.

Engan was joined by Sam Forbes, and John Wandel, who each qualified in two individual events and Matt Grunert, who qualified in one individual event, and three Senator relay teams who all qualified for this Saturday's state meet at the University of Nevada. In all, Engan, Forbes, Grunert and Wandel qualified for three events.

Engan won the 200 and 500 yard freestyles while Forbes won the 100 backstroke. Other local winner were Galena's Kayla Mariani, who won the 50 free in 25.29 seconds and Douglas High's Trevor Schaff, who won the 100 backstroke. The top three finishers qualified for the state meet.

In the team standings, Carson's boys took second and the Senator girls placed third. Douglas and Galena also had outstanding meets.

Reno swept the boys and girls titles. In the boys standings, Reno (386) was followed by Carson (318), Douglas (275) and Galena (267) while in the girls standings Reno (419) was followed by McQueen (309), Carson (275), Galena (216.50) and Douglas (178).

Engan left no doubt who was the North's top swimmer in the 200 free. She came into the finals seeded No. 2 behind Lowry's Madison Gray, but cruised to the win, beating Gray by more than two seconds (1:54.15-1:56.18). She also cruised to the title in the 500 free in 5:04.98.

The obvious goal is to sweep the state titles in both events next week. "I didn't really put a 100 percent in because I'm saving it for state," Engan said. "I didn't strain or anything."

Engan, though, wasn't completely satisfied. "I was a little disappointed," said about the team's performance. "I thought we could have done a little better. We had some mishaps. There were a lot of close races."

One of the mishaps happened in the 500 free when Barbara Perkins cap fell off. She settled for fifth in 5:24.55, missing qualifying for state by less than a second. It's likely that if Perkins' cap didn't fall off, she would have placed in the top three.

That honor went to Galena's Auble Gillian, who turned in a valiant effort to take third in 5:23.90. Lauren Metcalf took seventh in 5:29.69. "I was real comfortable," said Engan about her 500.

Another bittersweet moment for Carson's girls came in the final event, the 400 free relay. The team of Metcalf, Katie Wandel, Perkins and Engan just missed qualifying for state when it took fourth in 3:52.21. "That was a bummer," Engan said.

Carson's team of Engan, Jessica Goddard, Hilary Schlager and Engan did qualify for state when it took third in 1:44.00. But Engan wasn't completely satisfied with that race, either. "I thought we could go a little faster," she said.

The Senators boys 200 and 400 free relays both took second. Garrett Clayton, Scott Wandel, Kellen Dale and Grunert finished the 200 free relay in 1:38.52 and Forbes, Grunert, Andrew Cardinal and John Wandel finished the 400 free relay in 3:28.06. The team of Schafff, Taylor Brockway, Wilson Hayes and Justin White qualified for state in third for Douglas in 3:31.39.

Another near miss for Carson's boys came in the 200 medley relay. John Wandel, Clayton, Forbes and Cardinal took fourth in 1:48.00 as they were edged out by the Tigers' Schaff, Mike Freeman, White and Hayes, who were third in 1:47.64.

Near misses for Carson's girls came in the 50 free where Wandel took fourth in 25.68 and the 100 breaststroke where Schlager took fourth in 1:10.28.

Forbes won the 100 butterfly in 55.88 and took second in the 200 individual medley in 2:07.25. John Wandel took second in the 100 free in 50.50 while White was third in 51.44. Schaff won the 100 back in 57.16 while Wandel was second in 58.42.

Mariani also qualified for state in the 100 fly, taking third in 1:00.16 and Galena's Keegan Ferrari took third in the boys 100 breaststroke in 1:04.97.

It was a long day for Brockway, who tied for third with Reno's Sean McKenna in the 500 free as both finished in 5:20.11. After the meet, the two had to compete in a swim-off to determine who would go to state. Despite the long day, Brockway was almost able to equal his time in the finals, finishing in 5:20.83 to win the swim-off and qualify for state.

Other top finishers for Carson were: Girls 200 I.M. - Metcalf, seventh, 2:23.07. Girls 200 medley relay - Sarah Metcalf, Schlager, Goddard, Lauren Metcalf, sixth, 2:01.14. Girls 200 free - Schlager, fifth, 2:01.12. Girls 100 fly - Danielle Judge, 14th, 1:10.64; Rebekah Niehoff, 13th, 1:10.28; Goddard, seventh, 1:05.04.

Boys 10O fly - Alex Updegrove, 11th; Sam Ballard, eighth. Girls 100 free - Wandel, 10th, 58.91; Sarah Metcalf, 14th, 1:01.12. Boys 100 free - Cardinal, 10th, 53.67; Kellen Dale, 15th, 56.41. Boys 500 free - Ian Murdock, fifth; Aaron Murakami, seventh.

Boys 100 back - Sam Ballard, ninth, 1:04.91; Updegrove, eighth, 1:01.80. Boys 100 breaststroke - Clayton, fifth, 1:07.96; Grunert, sixth, 1:08.31; Scott Wandel, seventh, 1:09.06.

The future also looks bright for Carson's girls as Wandel was the only senior to qualify for zone.

Meet Notes: The Charles Keller Sportsmanship Award was given to South Tahoe. The award is named after Carson City's Charles Keller, a long-time supporter of high school swimming, who died of cancer in March.