Albuquerque Academy Secures Both Titles at the New Mexico State High School Championships

By Brian Savard

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, February 24. ALBUQUERQUE Academy swept both the women's and the men's titles at the New Mexico State High School Championships.

Team Scores
The Albuquerque Academy women edged out La Cueva, 303-277. Rio Rancho placed third with 208 points. In the men's competition, Albuquerque Academy had a more sizable victory over second-place Sandia Prep, 319-223.

Women's results

Albuquerque Academy senior Kendra Stern captured two individual gold medals. She won the 200 freestyle in 1:51.50, which beat the field by more than five seconds. Stern also bested her teammate, sophomore 50 freestyle champion Candice Sisouvanvieng-Kim, in the 100 freestyle by clocking 51.23. Stern's performance in the 100 freestyle shattered the former record of 52.08. Grace Galagan, a senior at Notre Dame and an Albuquerque Academy alumna, set the former mark in 2000.

Sisouvanvieng-Kim's 23.67 50 freestyle, however, trumped Stern's 2006 state-record performance. Stern clocked a 23.80 last year in the New Mexico state meet.

Manzano junior Marissa Campbell individually accounted for over a quarter of Manzano's points. She won gold medals in the 100 butterfly (56.90) and the 100 backstroke (57.34). Her 100 butterfly edged the former 57.11 standard set by former New Mexico high school standout Justine Schluntz in 2005. Schluntz attended Albuquerque Academy and currently swims as a redshirt freshman at the University of Arizona.

Albuquerque Academy's women took two of the three relays, winning both the 200 medley relay and the 200 freestyle relay. Albuquerque Academy's grouping of senior Katherine Berling, freshman Tess Lemon, Sisouvanvieng and Stern posted a first-place time of 1:51.62 while the foursome of Sisouvanvieng, eighth-grader Michelle Howell, freshman Marissa Hollowwa and Stern clocked a 1:38.57 time.

Men's results

Douwe Yntema, a Highland senior, set the record-breaking finals session off on the right foot clocking a 1:41.41 time in the 200 free. His time bested the former 1:41.54 standard originally set by Nate Rogers of Sandia Prep in 2004. Yntema dropped 20 seconds off his preliminary time in the finals of the 500 free, coasting to a 4:35.73 win.

Former Eldorado swimmer Ty Bathurst's 1994 50 freestyle record tumbled when sophomore St. Michael's swimmer Herbie Behm swam a 20.67 time in finals. Behm also won the 100 freestyle in a 46.49 time.

Albuquerque Academy may have won the overall team title, but Sandia Prep took two out of the three relays. Sandia Prep's 200 freestyle relay (senior Jack Rogers, junior Drew Collier, junior Scott Kendrick and junior Mack Puhl) won by over two seconds with a 1:28.37 time. Puhl foreshadowed a successful finish leading off with a 46.62, and his teammates (Kendrick, Collier and Rogers) sealed the deal with a gold-medal-winning 3:16.32 time in the 400 free relay.

Diving results

La Cueva senior Wendy Bustamante captured the women's diving gold with a final score of 366.40. Eldorado sophomore Kaitlin Walker and Rio Rancho freshman Hope Hoover took second and third with scores of 330.65 and 320.55, respectively

Blake Ferguson, an Eldorado junior, took the men's diving competition by recording a final score of 425.30. SAND senior Zachary Franchini (396.70) and Rio Rancho junior Mark Gray (389.35) finished second and third, respectively.

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