Douglas swimmer brings home state title to the Carson Valley

RENO " The 4A state swim championship was largely dominated by Southern power Palo Verde, but not even the Panthers could keep up with Douglas' Haley VonSchottenstein.

The junior dominated the 100-yard breaststroke from wire-to-wire to come up with the only state title between the Douglas and Carson teams.

"I'm not going to lie to you, I'm pretty exhausted from all the swimming," said VonSchottenstein, who posted a 1:08.18, almost two seconds slower than her first-place regional time. "But I still had determination to win and get first place."

Palo Verde won both the boys' and girls' championships. The Panthers dominated the boys' side with 105 points to second-placed Bishop Gorman's 67. Carson finished seventh with 26 points, while Douglas was 11th with 15. On the girls' side, Palo Verde had 86 points to edge out Green Valley's 80. Douglas was fifth with 38 points. Carson didn't qualify as a team in the girls' competition.

Carson finished where it is was seeded in virtually every race. They came in sixth in the 400-yard freestyle relay with 3:27.41. The relay, the last race of the day, also was the best race of the day. Reno edged out Palo Verde by less than a finger length.

Kevin Dyer finished sixth in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:00.48.

Paul Chang came in seventh in the 100-yard freestyle with a 50.33 and posted a sixth-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.82.

Dyer finished sixth in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:47.23, he was the seventh seed coming in and was last in the race until the final leg.

Carson also finished seventh in the 200-yard relay.

The state meet was the last for many of the Senators swim team and coach Monica Weaver said she will miss that group.

"I've known a lot of these guys since they were 9," she said. "So it's going to be tough to see them leave, but they're great kids."

Douglas was a part of one of the few upsets on the day. The girls came into the 200-yard freestyle relay as the No. 1 seed, but was within 0.94 of third-seeded Palo Verde. The Tigers trailed from the start and fell to third in a close finish with a 1:42.26. Palo Verde won with a 1:42.26 and Reno finished second at 1:42.35.

Douglas finished fourth in the 200-yard relay and VonSchottenstein added a second-place finish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.38.

The Douglas boys finished eighth in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:33.46 and Eric VanBeuge came in eighth in the 100-yard backstroke with a 58.75.