Similar West Jordan teams swim toward the same finish line

Both West Jordan and Copper Hills High Schools have dived into the swimming season, which started in mid –October. Both squads moved through their relatively short preseason and have gone straight into dual meets, tri-meets and tournaments. Both have struggled to break through the top 10 in their regions and haven’t cracked the top 20 in the state for years.

Each team has a number of seniors in the pool this school year who will be looked to for leadership and experience by underclassmen. West Jordan’s team make up is about one-third seniors. Though a small team, the Jaguars hope to use the familiarity those seniors bring to multiple events.

“We have 32 swimmers on our whole team, boys and girls combined. Many teams we are swimming against this year have 20-30 girls and another 20-30 boys. This has really made it difficult to keep up,” West Jordan co-head coach Mindy Dodge said. “Our boys have great diversity and cover all events really well.”

Copper Hills is being coached by Darby Cowles in the absence of ;last year’s head coach, who had to resign at the start of the season. Her challenges have been a bit different as far as learning new coaching duties, but the health and strength of her swimmers is at the forefront. “Regular bouts of sickness have been a challenge,” Cowles said.

The issue is the same at West Jordan as well, according to Dodge. “Many of our swimmers returned from the Greg Fernley Invitational with a head cold that seemed to circulate through the team,” she said.

As well as sharing a couple of similar challenges, West Jordan and Copper Hills also share a couple of goals for the 2011-12 season. Both teams want as many individual competitors to reach the state tournament as possible. They also want their relay groups to swim at the tournament..

“We have put major focus on technique and individual development this season. We are working hard to give individual attention to each swimmer, and helping them with their strengths and weaknesses,” Dodge said.

“We have strong relay teams and hope to get them to state as well,” Cowles said.

There are many strong swimmers at both schools who compete in several events. Copper Hills junior Kristine Pataray has the top time in 5A in the 50 yard freestyle, as well as top ten times in the 100 yard freestyle and the 100 yard fly. She has taken first place in the 50 free in more than one tournament so far this season. Junior Grizzly Jorgen Jensen also swims the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard backstroke. Hunter Neal, a sophomore at Copper Hills, is also expected to swim well this year. All three of these swimmers participate in relay events as well.

West Jordan junior Jarren Brinton competes in both the 200 and 400 yard freestyle. Dean Woicek, also a junior, swims in both the 50 and 100 yard freestyle. Audree Van Valkenburg competes in the 100 yard butterfly and the lengthy 500 yard freestyle. And sophomore Megan Perkins tears up the 50 and the 100 yard freestyle.

There is a lot of water left this season, but both teams are off to productive starts and will continue practicing, sometimes twice a day, to hone their skills and make a push toward the 2011-12 state tournament.