Fallon swimmers head to regional

All but four swimmers qualified for this weekend’s regional meet and Ken Grimes is hopeful Fallon can push through and qualify for state.

Fallon competes in the 3A regional swim meet Friday and Saturday in Carson City where the top three finishers in each event advance to next week’s state meet at UNLV.

“Our goal for the tournament is to be as competitive as possible and move kids into the finals on Saturday,” Grimes said. “There should be some great races to watch. The relays should be close in both the girls’ and boys’ races.”

Christian Nemeth leads the squad this weekend in his final season with the Greenwave. His specialty has been the 50- and 100-meter freestyle where he ranks in the top four.

Nemeth, though, is focused on how well they team will do in Carson.

“We are obviously trying to qualify as many guys as possible,” he said. “It can tend to get difficult because we have several first-year swimmers. All three of our relay times are in second place. The 400 free relay guys have a good shot at making state because of their good seed time.”

The team of Dominic Schulenberg, Ruben Alanis, Nemeth and Donnovan Wright has been strong in the 200 medley relay while the team of Justin Bivens, Kaden Grimes, Brian Seline and Kaweepat Hoonsiri has also been steady.

Alanis and Hoonsiri shined individually in the 200 free while Alanis was Fallon’s best in the 100 breaststroke and Hoonsiri was the leader in the 500 free.

For the girls, Emily Giovanetti (100 butterfly), Hannah Rochna (100 backstroke) and Larissa Sanches (500 free) have the strongest chances at advancing to state.

While Grimes has been pleased with the team’s performance this season, his focus is on Fallon making sure it continues to improve, following the mantra of doing better that what they did yesterday.

“I’m very proud of what we have accomplished so far,” Grimes said. “If we do that Friday and Saturday, we will have a great meet no matter what.”