Race is on ... for prep swimmer of the year honors

Down the years of Utah prep swimming, the sport's highest individual award, Swimmer of the Year, has almost always taken a back seat to team accomplishment.

Individuals have been recognized in media coverage at state meets, but those achievements have usually coincided with some sort of team effort.

Which is kind of funny when you consider that swimming remains mostly an individual pursuit.

Even so, the Swimmer of the Year awards have continued on for several years, providing prep swimming with the means to honor, sometimes controversially, the top male and female swimmer from each classification.

Swimmer of the Year was determined for several seasons by coaches' votes, but that system was replaced a few years ago by a points system, which is supplied by the National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association.

Each swimmer may participate in two individual events at state, and points are awarded based on the top national times in each event.

Whoever garners the most points claims Swimmer of the Year honors.

With the 2006 state meets looming on the horizon in February, the story lines and battles for this year's top swimmers look better than ever.

Accordingly, here's a comprehensive look at the Swimmer of the Year races:

5A GIRLS: Easily the most intriguing Swimmer of the Year contest, and might possibly be the best individual battle in a long time.

Anna Crandall of Skyline, Ana Agy of Brighton and Natalie Edge of Kearns are all outstanding swimmers and they'd all be deserving winners if recognized as Class 5A's top female swimmer.

Trouble is, there's three of them and there can only be one winner.

How close are they?

Based on their times, which are compiled by the Utah Swimming Coaches Association, all three of them would be within one point of each other if they swam their top two events at the state meet.

Agy, a senior who's signed with Arizona, currently holds the state's best time in any event on either side— 56.22 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly. She holds very good times in several other events.

Then there's Edge, a junior, who's won all four of her individual events in previous state meets. It's likely she'll compete in the two sprinting events.