Palo Verde won girls and boys titles in Nevada’s 2019 class 4A state meet, with Chloe Freeman winning two individual titles for the girls and Tyler Edlefsen two for the boys.
Girls Meet
Palo Verde junior Chloe Freeman pulled off a tough 100 fly/500 free combo to lead her team to the 2019 Nevada 4A girls title. Freeman went 56.55 to pace the 100 fly, winning by about a second and a half. With just three 100-yard events in between Freeman came off that race to go 5:00.11 and dominate the 500 free. Freeman won by more than seven seconds over the field in a huge swing for Palo Verde.
Palo Verde also got a nice early run through the 200 free and 200 IM. Freshman Paige Kuwata went 1:52.36 to win the 200 free in a nailbiter, beating Galena freshman Emma Karam by a half-second. In the next event, the 200 IM, junior Reese Hazan handed Palo Verde another win in 2:03.81.
In that 200 free, Karam was coming off a 200 medley relay win for Galena, which finished second in team points. She joined Summer Murphy, Annabelle Linzy and Julie Abrigonde to go 1:46.80 for that event win. She would go on to beat Hazam for the 100 back title, 55.01 to 56.00.
Bishop Gorman freshman Audrey Yu was another standout youngster. She won all four of her events, leading her team to two relay titles. Yu won the 50 free (23.10) and 100 free (50.84) by wide margins, and used that sprint speed to power 200 and 400 free relay wins. Yu led off the 200 free relay with Paige Sondgeroth, Caroline Anderson and Emma Breslin combining to go 1:37.39. Meanwhile Yu, Sondgeroth, Devyn Wingender and Breslin went 3:31.53 to win the 400 free relay.
Other event winners:
- South East Career Tech Academy’s Ellie Renner broke the state 4A record in diving, scoring 53.9.75 points. She and Reno’s Regan Caufield (533.75) both went over the old state record.
- Foothill’s Faith Brazil won the 100 breast in 1:03.63.
Top 5 Teams:
- Palo Verde – 109
- Galena – 83
- Bishop Gorman – 73
- Spanish Springs – 46
- Coronado / Reno Desert – 44
Boys Meet
Palo Verde senior Tyler Edlefsen won two individual events and powered a 200 medley relay win, as his team outlasted Coronado by 7 points for the boys 4A title.
Edlefsen swam breaststroke on the winning 200 medley relay team, going 1:37.75 along with Trajan Houston, Thomas Miller and Joseph Gutierrez. That was a win by half a second over Coronado, which proved to be impactful by meet’s end.
Edlefsen also won the 200 IM (1:49.98) and 100 breaststroke (57.40) by solid margins for Palo Verde. After that 100 breast, Palo Verde held a 5-point lead over Coronado, with the earlier 200 medley relay win serving as an 8-point swing. Coronado would have to outplace Palo Verde pretty significantly in the final relay to carry the win, but Palo Verde had used up Edlefsen’s events. Though Green Valley won the relay in 3:13.49, Palo Verde’s Ren Prescott, Brooks Blackert, Devin Bauman and Gutierrez took hom second, besting Coronado by about a second. That sealed what became a 7-point Palo Verde team win.
Coronado did win the 200 free relay in 1:27.80, besting Green Valley by two seconds.
Reno sophomore Luke Hobson was one of the individual standouts. He won both distance events. Hobson was 1:38.38 to win the 200 free by about three seconds, and outlasted Gutierrez to win the 500 free in 4:28.35.
Other event winners:
- Douglas sophomore Justin LoPresto went 22.10 to win a touchout title in the 50 free.
- Spanish Springs’ Payton Lee broke the state 4A diving record with 581.15 points. The only record was just 515.10, set way back in 1996.
- Green Valley’s Alesandro Ongaro took the 100 fly in 51.94.
- Sierra Vista’s Nikita Nazarov went 47.17 to win the 100 free.
- Legacy junior McKay Mickelson won the 100 back in 51.81, touching out Centennial’s Sawyer Grimes (51.98).
Top 5 Teams:
- Palo Verde – 91
- Coronado – 84
- Green Valley – 77
- Douglas – 49
- Centennial – 38