West Jordan boys nip Bingham

MURRAY — Beating arch rival Bingham to second place at the Region 3 championships required an immense effort from each of West Jordan's boys swimmers.

That's precisely what coach Gene Peterson got, and as things played out, the Jaguars needed every one of those points.

Spurred on by an outstanding performance from sophomore Jordan Fletcher and his teammates, West Jordan nipped Bingham for second place at the Region 3 meet, beating its rival by a single point, 240-239.

"It's all the boys," said Peterson. "They deserve the credit. They came in and overachieved themselves. I couldn't believe it."

Kearns won the boys championship over West Jordan, 268-240. On the other hand, Bingham narrowly beat out Hunter for second place on the girls side. The Miners finished second to Kearns, 429-215.

Region 3 schools will close out the season this weekend at the 5A state championships, which will be held at BYU's Richards Building. The first eight events begin at 5 p.m. tonight.

You could point to a number of races that pushed the Jaguars ahead of Bingham on the boys side.

For starters, Fletcher turned in a great 50 fly split in the 200-yard medley relay, which allowed West Jordan to finished second in the event.

According to Peterson, West Jordan fell behind its own projections over the next two events — the 100 free and 200 IM. They turned it around, though, in the 50 free.

Fletcher won the event, but it was the performances of Randy Rhodes (second place), Austin Spoerri (sixth place) and Jordan Spoerri (10th place) that brought the Jaguars back into contention for second place.

That continued in the 100 fly. Again, Fletcher won the event handily, but the spotlight also shined on Josh Loomis and Tim Pollock, who finished in seventh and 10th place, respectively.

Then there was the 500 free.

West Jordan junior Zach Bellows dropped nearly 10 seconds off his seeded time en route to third place, beating out Hunter's Tyler Marsing. It was the first time he'd ever beaten Marsing in the event.

"I just wanted to beat that kid from Hunter," said Bellows.

Second place was especially sweet for West Jordan, considering they started the season late because of a controversial coaching change.