3A high school boys swimming championships: Miners prove it isn't a numbers game

PROVO — Outnumbered, but not undermanned, the Park City boys swimming team held on to its lead in the final day of the 3A Utah High School State Championships at BYU on Saturday.

With only nine swimmers on the team, the Miners came into the day's competition with a 16-point lead over Wasatch, and secured the advantage with a 400-yard freestyle relay win in the final race of the meet.

Park City totaled 282 points, while Wasatch finished with 255.5. Judge Memorial was third with 185, followed by Desert Hills (181) and Tooele (177).

"Last year they were third in state, and the guys just wanted to come in and have fun and keep the momentum going," Park City coach Mike Werner said.

Park City's Dusty Ragland added to his 50-yard freestyle win on Friday with a victory in the 100-yard freestyle on Saturday.

"It feels good to win in both events, because I won both of them last year, too," Ragland said. "My goal was not only to win again, but to improve my times, and I did that."

Desert Hills' Tim Senholtz picked up a pair of victories, in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard breaststroke.

Ben Branham of Oakley won his second event of the weekend by finishing first in the 100-yard backstroke.

"I came out fast, so I was hurting at the end," Branham said. "I have a lot of gratitude for my coach and all he's done for me."

Pine View sophomore Mitchell Hutchings also won again, this time in the 500-yard freestyle.

"I've been training for this for so long; this is the one I wanted to win," Hutchings said. "It's probably the toughest mentally, the most challenging. I know that next year there will be a target on my back, so I need to focus and keep getting stronger."

After clinching the title, Werner addressed the outnumbered theory.

"With a smaller team, we acknowledge that fact, but it's not something that we really think about," Werner said. "This win is just a culmination of so much hard work."

3A Boys Swimming State Championship

Day 2

At BYU

Final Team Standings