The Farmington High swimmers began their season with a first-place finish at the Region 1 Sprints meet Nov. 5, coming out on top with 273 points – to Weber’s 233.

“Our team has some standout swimmers, but we also have a lot of depth this year, which helped us in the meet and will lead us to success this season!” said FHS head coach Stacy Edholm. “Because it was the first meet of the season, there were a lot of disqualifications with all the teams, which can be expected. There are a lot of brand new swimmers that are still learning the rules. We even had some DQs with experienced swimmers. I’m glad we’ve got that behind us, and lessons learned, so there won’t be as many in future meets.”

Sophomores Elsie Crowell won the 50 butterfly and 50 backstroke while Jack Smart both won the 50 freestyle and 50 backstroke while helping their relay teams to first-place finishes.

Edholm said seniors London Spears, Clarke Tholl, Will Farnsworth, Cannon Christensen and Jake Rizley had standout swims in relays and individual events. The former “fabulous freshmen” group - that are now a year older – consisting of Crowell, Smart, Owen VanSkiver and Noah Bampi also dropped time with some strong swims. “They helped push the team to victory and are representing our team well,” Edholm said.

Other top-three finishes for the Phoenix squad were the mixed 200 medley relay lineup of Crowell, Tholl, Rizley and Spears (first), the mixed 200 free relay team of Crowell, Jacie Nielson, Scott and Smart (first), the mixed 200 free relay team of Carissa Tolman, Brennon Denos, Bronson Denos and Drew Lines (second), Rizley (second, 50 free; third, 50 fly), Scott (second, 100 Individual Medley) and Tholl (second, 50 breaststroke; third, 50 free).

“We have a whopping 70 swimmers on the team this year, and because of the depth of talent, and not just a few standout swimmers, we were able to not just win some relays and individual events, but earned a lot of second and third place finishes as well,” Edholm said. 

At the Greg Fernley Invitational Nov. 8-9, Farmington finished eighth overall behind two fifth-place showings from Crowell in the 200 IM and the 100 back. Nielson broke a school record in the 100 breast – dropping a “whopping” four seconds – to take fourth in the event.

“Our finish is pretty good, considering the extremely high caliber of talent that attended the meet. We had almost every swimmer put in a top time in this very fast swim meet with the top swimmers from Utah attending!” Edholm said. “The weekend started off with an emergency change of venue. The pool at Utah Tech had maintenance issues, so there was a last-minute change of venue. It wasn’t ideal, but all of the swimmers and families took it in stride and made it work!”

Other top-10 finishers for the Phoenix team were the boys 400 free relay team of Will Scott, Rizley, VanSkiver, Tholl (fifth), the boys 200 medley relay team of Scott, Tholl, Rizley and Smart (sixth), the boys 200 free relay team of Smart, Bampi, Max Murray and VanSkiver (eighth), Tholl (ninth, 100 breast), Smart (10th, 100 free), the girls 200 medley relay team of Crowell, Nielson, Holbrook and Spears (10th) and the girls 400 free relay team of Mia Cikara, Jacie Nielson, London Spears and Elsie Crowell (10th).

“Our team is on a roll with best times. Our travel team consisted of 33 swimmers, and out of these we had 46 individual swims with best times this meet!” Edholm said. λ