High school boys swimming: Eagles seize the day, take 4A title

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PROVO — The Skyline boys exemplified their team motto "Now is the time" on Saturday as they seized an opportunity to hoist the 4A state trophy. The Eagles took the meet in dominating fashion, blowing their competition out of the water with 396 points.

Travis Norseth opened up the second day of the state meet with a first-place finish in the 100-yard butterfly. Norseth snagged the commanding victory with a time of 51.91 — nearly a whole four seconds ahead of second-place finisher Jake Anderson (55.86).

Skyline retained momentum through the 100-yard freestyle as David Amirkhanashvili (48.12) held on for a less than one-second victory over Anton Koponen (48.29) of Mountain Crest.

Although the Eagles weren't victorious in either the 500-yard freestyle or the 200-yard freestyle relay, they were able to "put kids on the podium" — the team's goal for the year according to coach Joe Pereira — taking third in both events and further extending the team lead.

The eventual champs returned to the top of the podium in the 100-yard back with Scott Sorensen blowing away the rest of the field by almost four seconds.

The victory was capped off with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay by senior swimmers Amirkhanashvili, Scott Sorensen and Travis Norseth, and sophomore James Sorensen.

Coach Pereira couldn't express enough his admiration for the leadership displayed by the seniors on this year's team. "We have a lot of seniors … that push those kids (underclassmen)," he said. "Our senior boys really carried each other through."

The Eagles weren't the only ones to take home accolades at this year's state meet. Senior Shawn Western of Olympus was named Utah High School Swimmer of the Year after smashing the 500-yard freestyle state record with a time of 4:33.95.

Shawn said that he did "two-a-days every day of the week, training for at least two hours in the pool each day."

He expressed sincere surprise upon receiving the award, saying he was "baffled" that the award hadn't gone to Norseth.

Western will be joining the ranks of the BYU men's swim team upon graduation this year.

"It's extremely worth it," he said, "and there's still more to come. This is just the beginning."

Mountain Crest finished in second with 265 total points and Springville took third with 243.5 total points.

email: jwilde@desnews.com