Hillcrest sees its 4th-place finish at region as sign of team's growth

At first glance, Hillcrest's fourth-place finish at the Region 2 swim championships this past weekend doesn't seem too impressive.

Until you realize the Huskies haven't finished above last place for a few years.

However, anchored by impressive relay performances, the boys team did just that, notching a fourth-place finish at the region meet, held at the Fairmont Aquatic Center.

When second-year coach Lisa Craig took over the program this past year, she only had a handful of swimmers. She had more than 70 at the start of this year, and the program's been showing other signs of life.

"I've been really pleased with how the program's grown," Craig said, "and also with the quality of the kids."

The Huskies' relays were the highlights of the region meet. Their 200-yard medley relay dropped a whopping five seconds, and the 200 freestyle relay dropped significant time, too.

Individually, Kirk Erickson and Victor Gappmeier qualified for state.

Meanwhile, Taylorsville notched a fourth-place finish on the girls side. Alisha Whitehead and Courtney Richens performed well for the Warriors.

As expected, Skyline comfortably won the Region 2 title on both sides. The Eagles' boys team bested Brighton 385 points to 310, while the girls squad beat Brighton 433-337.

Considering the immense depth of Skyline's girls team, the Bengals actually did very well to keep the gap that small.

"The (girls) meet was never in doubt," Skyline coach Joe Pereira said.

Coaches may only enter four swimmers into each individual event at state, and because of that rule, a handful of Skyline's swimmers who had qualifying times won't be able to swim next week at BYU.

"I'm leaving some girls home," Pereira said.

Ironically, the Eagles unofficially set three state records at the Region 2 meet.

Skyline's girls 200-yard medley relay team (1:48.29), KC Albiston in the 500 free (5:01.69) and Sara Nicponski in the 100 breaststroke (1:04.77) each bested the state record, though the marks won't count because they didn't occur at the state meet.

Albiston and Nicponski are just two swimmers from a deep pool of talented Eagles.