Reece Canfield and his Carson High teammates closed the book on their season on an upbeat note Saturday at the NIAA 4A State Swimming and Diving Championships.
Canfield surged to fourth place in the 100-yard butterfly then came back at the end of the day to help Carson place fifth in the 400 freestyle relay at the Carson Aquatic Facility.
Carson’s relay team clocked a season-best time of 3:18.86, nearly a full second faster than its qualifying mark one week before at the region meet in the same pool. The Senators received solid performances across the board from Matthew Hill, Brett Kolb, Alexander Gutierrez and Canfield, who all logged splits in the 49-second range.
“I think we’re all about equal,” Canfield said. “We have a really strong team … the southern teams are just pretty fast.”
By the way, the eight points from that fifth-place finish lifted Carson into ninth place in the final boys standings (24 points total). Another consolation was a reversal from the region meet, when the Senators finished second behind rival Douglas. This time, Douglas finished sixth.
“We’ve been getting faster every meet,” Canfield said. “This was a great way to end our season.”
Canfield showed improvement from his region meet swim in the 100 butterfly. The junior was the No. 7 seed and moved up to No. 4 in 53.64, one-half second faster than his qualifying time from the region meet.
“His drop in time was what we were hoping for, but the place was a surprise,” Carson coach Monica Weaver said. “Anytime you go into a race seeded seventh and come out of it in fourth, you’ve done a phenomenal job.”
Canfield got a strong start and made the turn at the midway mark in 24.88, six-tenths of a second behind the eventual winner, David Miller of Palo Verde (final time of 51.33).
“That was a great race; I just came out fast and tried to hang on,” Canfield said. “I also worked on my turns in practice this week. I think that helped me today.”
Douglas finished third in the boys team standings with 57 points, paced by gold medal performances from Joe Sulllivan in the 50 freestyle and the 200 freestyle relay. Sullivan clocked a 21.94 plus he combined with Joey Smithen, Josh Smithen and Justin Hight to win the 200 freestyle relay in 1:28.43. Sullivan also placed fourth in the 100 freestyle (48.80), Joey Smithen placed fourth in the 200 backstroke (54.23) and Alexander Laningham fifth in the diving (274.55 points).
Palo Verde outdistanced Coronado by a 115-72 score to capture the boys team championship.
Kolb placed sixth for Carson in the 200 freestyle (1:48.02) and seventh in the 500 freestyle (4:59.43), while Hill placed eighth in both the 50 freestyle (23.17) and 100 freestyle (50.68).
Carson’s team of Bryan Remick, Hill, Canfield and Kolb placed seventh in the 200 freestyle relay (1:32.03).
On the girls side, Carson placed seventh in the 200 freestyle relay at 1:44.15, more than a second faster than their qualifying time from the region meet. The team included Blanca Sosa (26.35 split), America Brenna Gutierrez (25.95), Hannah Presley (26.10) and Nicole Van Geel (25.75).
Note: The start of swimming was delayed one hour due to the diving competition at the Carson Valley Swim Center in Minden. At least two of the divers were scheduled to swim for their schools in the 200 medley relay.