Blue Griffins look toward state championship
Boys seek third win; girls a first
The Santa Fe Prep swim team checked off one of its goals for the season when the Blue Griffins boys and girls both managed to finish second in last weekend’s district meet behind powerful and much larger Los Alamos.
And while the boys go into next weekend’s state championship meet at Albuquerque Academy looking for a threepeat of its smallschools championship, the girls are looking to move up a notch to the top spot on the podium for the first time.
“I thought we had a great chance of placing second on both sides,” Prep coach David Caldwell said of the district meet. “We hadn’t done it before. Our team this year is well balanced and I thought we had an opportunity to achieve that if we swam to our capabilities. We had a lot of kids that sacrificed to swim different events to help the team out, which was fantastic.”
Among those was girls’ senior captain Arielle Nathan, who volunteered to swim the grueling 500-meter freestyle just so the Blue Griffins could capture those points.
“I hadn’t swum the 500 all season,” Nathan said. “But I knew we needed to get points to get second in districts, so I volunteered to swim it.”
She finished fourth in the event, then almost immediately thereafter participated in a relay, then her primary individual event, the 100 backstroke, taking third.
“It was difficult,” Nathan admitted.
It was one of several noteworthy performances. Freshman Sophia Gossum set the district record in the 50 free (24.95 seconds) and also won the 100 free. And sophomore Chelsea Griscom was second in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 breast stroke.
In addition to winning a first
state championship, Nathan said, the group of six state qualifiers are also looking to break the school record in all three relays.
“If we did that, ideally, we’d win small-school state,” she said. “I think it would be a nice way to end my whole swim career.”
On the boys side, Caldwell said he sees Cottonwood Classical, Sandia Prep and Bosque as the primary contenders to wrest the title away.
“Our expectations are for them to triple-peat,” he said. “We’ve got three guys who have been at the state championship the past four years and they’re ready to prove themselves as seniors before they walk out.”
One of those, Jordan Kinlaw, said the team understands what’s expected, despite losing two extremely strong seniors from last year.
“I definitely feel some pressure,” he said. “Last year, we had a really stacked team. Now, this year, there’s a lot more pressure on the seniors. Especially Reed (Kellam) and I. Reed is dealing with a sprained ankle, so that puts a little bit more pressure on me. But going into it, I’m feeling pretty excited.”
In addition to his work on the relays, Kinlaw won the 100 free and was third in the 100 breaststroke at the district meet.
The third senior, Vineet Narayanan, won the 100 back, and will join Kinlaw and Kellam on the relay squads, along with precocious eighth-grader Nico Roth, who was second in the 200 individual medley.
“These guys are all great relay swimmers,” Crawford said.
Being able to go out with one more championship would be a sweet way to end his swimming career, Kinlaw said.
“I’ve really enjoyed being part of the swim team,” he said. The things that have really stood out for me are being part of the team. It’s been really inspirational for me. Competing, knowing that I can make myself better to swim faster and be more competitive has been a really big part of swimming.”