West Jordan wins first region championship

For the first time in school history, West Jordan won a region swim championship. That was one of the main goals of this talented squad throughout the season, and the Jaguars took care of business when it mattered.

Just winning the Region 3 trophy would've been satisfying in its own right, but the fact that the Jags beat out archrival Bingham to the award made it even sweeter.

West Jordan's boys team claimed the Region 3 title last week at the Fairmont Aquatic Center, edging Bingham 333 points to 290.

"(Bingham) came in this region, thinking they could beat us," said sophomore sprinter Jordan Spoerri. "So it was nice to beat them and shut them down."

Added coach Gene Peterson: "The whole team just swam out of their minds."

West Jordan, Bingham and the rest of 5A will conclude their seasons this weekend at the 5A state meet, which will be held at BYU's Richards Building.

At region, it took several outstanding performances from West Jordan swimmers to hold off a charging Bingham squad.

West Jordan junior Jordan Fletcher, the leading candidate for 5A boys Swimmer of the Meet, won both his individual events (100 fly and 100 back) and Spoerri won the 50 free.

It wasn't just them, however. West Jordan had swimmers drop big chunks of time across the board, and they also claimed wins in all three relays.

"We needed all of them," Peterson said of his swimmers.

It really did take several superlative performances to keep Bingham at bay. Event after event, the Miners dropped lots of time. And Bingham had plenty of individual wins, too.

Senior Josh Rueckert notched wins in the 100 free and 200 free, and Chris Anderson (200 IM), Geremy Koyle (500 free) and Jordan Westra (100 breast) also won individually.

Heading into the meet, West Jordan held approximately a 40-point projected lead over Bingham. From that perspective, the final gap was close to what it should've been. However, Bingham scored roughly 50 more points than it was projected to, which meant West Jordan had to make a similar jump to maintain the gap.

"I've got to give Bingham a hand," said Peterson. "They fought like vicious dogs to stay up there. It says a lot about their character, and I think it says a lot about our character, too."