Cibola’s Jerpseth, Kofa’s Salizzoni shine
Raiders gets 2nd as a team, senior named Most Outstanding Boys Swimmer
Though Gila Ridge no question had the best showing of anybody at the Colorado River Swimming Championships, there were several other notable local performances.
Cibola finished as the runner-up in the boys team standings Saturday for the second year in a row, and produced the meet’s Most Outstanding Boys Swimmer — senior Brock Jerpseth, who blew the 100-yard butterfly competition away and also won the 50-yard freestyle. The Raiders also had an individual champ on the girls side, as freshman Sidney Quinn cruised to first in the 500-yard freestyle.
And Kofa’s star — junior Jessip Salizzoni — was nearly as impressive as Jerpseth, winning the 100-yard breaststroke and just missing out on the 200yard individual medley title while greatly increasing his odds of qualifying in both events for the Division I state meet. Neither Jerpseth nor Salizzoni had ever won an individual regional prior to this year.
For Jerpseth, it was a long time coming. In his three previous Colorado River meets, he had placed second four times and third once. That he finally broke through didn’t come as much of a surprise, particularly in the 100 fly — an event in which he entered the meet ranked No. 11 in Division I. title
The 50 free was less of a certainty given that he and Gila Ridge standout Talen Osborn had nearly identical season-bests going in. But Jerpseth was able to edge Osborn by roughly two-tenths of a second for the win, and in the process dropped his PR from 23.06 to 22.53.
His 100 fly time (52.64) was also a new PR, top-