Swimming & Diving: Tigers ready for title defense

Douglas High swim coach Charlie Bowman glances down his roster and muses about the amount of talent the team has this season.

Now it's just a matter of getting them all in the water at the same time.

The Tiger swimmers and divers have been plagued by early-season injuries, illnesses, prior committments and even a couple of family vacations " so much so that Bowman has been doing a delicate juggling act just trying to field a team for the first meet of the year.

"We'll be a little thin these first few weeks, but once everyone is here we should be fine," Bowman said.

Fine is a little bit of an understatement.

The Tiger girls return the bulk of its roster from last year's Zephyr League championship team and the boys return a state qualifier, a Junior Olympic qualifier and one of their top divers.

"We have a pretty good mix this year," Bowman said. "We've got plenty of seniors, plenty of sophomores and a couple of juniors but we are a little short in freshmen.

"We've got a league title to defend and we have high hopes of sending a number of kids on to the state championships this year."

The girls already opened the year with a 174.5-107.5 win over Lowry, despite missing a couple of their top performers, sisters Paula and Sara Sigala, due to illness.

Sophomore Haley Von Schottenstein, who was Douglas' lone state qualifier on the girls' side last year, won the 100 butterfly against Lowry and teamed with Cassie Parr, Anna Jackson and Sarah Koontz to win the 200 free relay and take second in the 200 medley relay.

Koontz, a freshman, took second in the fly as well.

"We have a couple freshmen that should do pretty well for us," Bowman said. "They've been swimming for the Douglas Dolfins for a number of years and have been very strong so far."

Along with Koontz, Bowman said he had high hopes for Molly Lahlum and Brenda VanDenBerg.

Lahlum won the 100 free, took second in the 50 free and teamed with Sarah Allen, Ashley Spohn and Cassie Lopez to win the 400 free relay.

Douglas got a surprise in newcomer Marisa Bertolone who won the 50 free and took second in the 100 free.

Sarah Tigh took third in the 50 free and Jackson took fourth, completing a sweep in that event while Megan Ryan took third in the 100 free to give Douglas a top-three sweep there.

Douglas rounded out the meet by getting a first-place in the 100 backstroke from Jackson, a first in the 100 breaststroke from sophomore Chandra Matheson, a first in diving from newcomer Aleassa Anzelone, a diving second from freshman

Samantha Phillips, and a second in the 500 free from senior Rebecca Chappell.

"With the girls, our strengths should be the sprints, but we're strong in the distances too," Bowman said. "We have some strong divers. We really don't have any weaknesses, we should be pretty strong overall."

Other solid returners for the girls include Kali Evanson, Virginia Evans, Julie Pozun, Brittany Spohn and Lisa VanDenBerg.

For the boys, the Tigers have the talent but will be severely lacking in depth.

"We're down to eight swimmers and three divers," Bowman said. "We're really hurting. We have some good fast guys, we just don't have the numbers."

To make matters worse, the team will be even more depleted to start the year.

Senior Marco Hyman was away at the Far West Junior Olympic competition over the weekend and missed the team's first meet. Standout Taylor Brockway, who qualified for state two years ago in the 500 free, is home-schooled and has run into clearance problems with the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association.

"We're just trying to make sure he gets cleared to compete," Bowman said.

Colby Cain is expected to be a strong contributor for the Tigers this year, but is currently in Hawaii on vacation with his family.

"They moved spring break up this year, which is nice because then we're not getting a void in the middle of the season, but we're dealing with some things with people going away for a week with their family early in the year here," Bowman said. "Those kids are still going to be working out where they're at, so they won't be getting out of condition."

Douglas did get Kevin McAdoo, a transfer from California, but he has also been out sick.

That left Douglas limited in its opener against Lowry, and it showed in the final score as the Buckaroos took a 170-29 win.

Junior Kevin Johnston won the 100 free and junior Ryan Dykes won the 100 breaststroke and took second in 1 meter diving. Junior Eddie Kollar won the diving event in his first varsity diving performance.

"We try to get our divers to swim too," Bowman said. "Diving counts as one event. If we can throw those guys in a relay or two and a 50 free, we can pick up a lot of points. Ryan is a great example of that. He has a lot of speed, but he is good on the board too.

"We'll have a small team, but they'll be fast, so it should be fun to watch."

Bowman said he is looking to incoming freshman Shawn Stubnar to hold down the distance events. Eric Van Beuge, a recent addition to the team, is also expected to contribute.