GHS Swim Gets New Coaches and New Look - Team Places 2nd in Altus
This year's new GHS Head Coach Shannon Smith is not new to the Guymon area swim circuit. Coach Smith is an Elkhart, KS native and began swimming competitively at a young age with her father coaching her and the Guymon Gators Swim Club. After being a Gator swimmer for most of her childhood, Coach Smith herself became a Guymon Gator coach for a total of eleven years. Not only was she a championship swimmer, she was able to lead the Gators to Combined Meet Championships many of her years as coach. Coach Smith's Assistant Coach Lisa Schultz also has swim coaching experience coaching the Tri-State Tritons in Elkhart, KS. Both of these ladies have a lot of combined experience and a fresh coaching philosophy to bring to the GHS Swim program this year. Coach Smith is thrilled with the team's efforts and their desire to improve. She said that the team is putting in the work every single week, working on technique to improve their form, and working on sprints, to improve their speed. When asked about her goals to make the team better, she said “their goals are my goals”. She said each swimmer pushes themselves to be better and faster, and her best plan is to focus on technique, while sharpening their swim skills.
Coach Smith is very impressed with the community's support of the swim team, as well as the swim parents and swim team families.
One of Coach Shannon's obvious changes to the team was giving them a new look by ordering new swim suits and swim caps for the team. The new suit sports the “G” Guymon Public School's branded logo, atop an edgy orange, black and white design. The swim caps are black and are also printed with the “G” logo, as well a special “S4E” emblem, in honor of the late Emily El-Amoudi.
This past Friday Guymon Swim traveled to Altus as they hosted the Tigers, as well as Chickasha, Putnam City and Bethany High Schools. Guymon's men and women teams both had personal time improvements-nineteen personal record improvements in all.
Participating in Altus for the women were Laramie Long, Lauren El-Amoudi, Sheralyn Morales, Sydney Landers, Solana Vargas, Bea Homan, Angelica Valdez, and Kathy Zavalza. The women had a great day with a 2nd place finish on their 200 Meter Medley ‘A' Relay, a 2nd place finish on the 400 Meter Freestyle Relay, and several top-five finishes in individual events. Sydney Landers and Lauren El-Amoudi both had top-two finishes in their individual events. El-Amoudi placed 3rd on the 100
M Breaststroke, while she pushed through a long race to place 2nd on her 400 M Freestyle. Landers finished very strong for the ladies, with a 2nd place finish and new personal records in both the 100 Meter Freestyle and the 100 Meter Breaststroke. The women scored 149 points and placed 4th.
The men who traveled to Altus were Cash Mains, Jose Saenz, Harrison Oakes, Jaxon Miller, Paul Oakes, Jevin Setzer, Gavin Martinez, MacKobe Merwin, and Thomas Mussman. Notably some of the best performances by the Tiger Men were the 200 Meter Medley ‘A' Relay, with a first place finish, and their 200 Meter Freestyle Relay placed 2nd. Merwin finished an impressively fast race for a 1st place finish and a new personal record in his 100 Meter Breaststroke. Gomez was also able to score some big points for the Tigers when he placed 2nd in the 100 Meter Backstroke, also with a new personal record. Thomas Mussman also pushed himself to faster times, for new personal records on both of his top-two individual finishes, when he placed 2nd in the 50 Meter Freestyle, and by winning 1st place in the 100 Meter Freestyle. The men scored 233 points and placed 2nd.
Guymon placed 2nd place overall at the meet in Altus. The Tigers are already gearing up for their next swim meet in Enid on Friday, November 19.