By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
Member teams of the Central Arkansas Swim League will compete in their final regular-season meets today, and qualifiers will advance to next week’s huge Meet of Champions that will be held at UALR.
The event will include all silver and gold qualifying swimmers, plus the top eight bronze-level swimmers in each category.
Several swimmers in all age groups and swim strokes have already qualified for the Meet of Champs, with others very close with today’s final meet as their last chance to qualify.
Cabot girls dominate the top 10 in the 18-under freestyle, and litter the top 10 in almost every category.
“We have had a lot of success with our older girls,” Cabot coach Debbie Skidmore said. “Obviously they are performing really well this year.”
Five of the top nine 18-under freestylers are members of the Cabot Piranhas. Megan Owens, Allison Sinning, Ashley Weaver, Jenni Vaughan and Frances McFadden are second, fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth respectively in that event. Weaver and Owens are second and third respectively in the backstroke and butterfly, and Owens leads all swimmers in the league in the breaststroke and individual medley.
Weaver and Sinning are also in the top five in the IM, while MacFadden is currently sixth in the butterfly.
For the older boys, Sherwood’s Will Axsom and Cabot’s John Santiago lead the league in races. Axsom has the top time in the freestyle at 23.94 seconds, while the 16-year old Santiago leads the way in the breaststroke at 31.89. Also in the breaststroke, Sherwood’s Christopher Heye has the third best time, and teammate Shan Scott is fifth.
Axsom also has the second-best time in the backstroke, and is third in the butterly.
In the medley, Axsom is followed by Cabot’s Seth Fox, Heye and Santiago.
Cabot’s Riley Young is in the top five in 14-girls butterfly and IM. Cabot’s Brent Brockel is currently second in the boys 14-under freestyle, and joining him in the top five is Sherwood’s Cordell Taylor, who is fourth.
Cabot’s Payton Jones shows up in the top five in the boys 14-under backstroke while Brockel is third in the butterfly and IM.
Sherwood’s Delaney Haral-son and Erin Woodward show up in the top five in several girls 12-under events, along with Lonoke’s Kayla McGee.
McGee is currently ranked No.1 in the freestyle and breaststroke, and second in the butterfly. Haralson is at the top in backstroke, butterfly and IM, and second in the two events that McGee leads.
Cabot’s Catyee Wright is fourth in the freestyle while Woodward is fifth. Woodward is also third in the backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, and second in the medley.
Sherwood Sharks dominate the top of the 12-under boys. Christopher Heye is either first or second in every event heading into the MOC. He leads the freestyle, breaststroke and IM, and is second in the backstroke and butterfly. Joshua Hale and Brendan Daugherty are also in the top five in several categories.
Perhaps no division is dominated by one team as much as the 10-under girls are dominated by Sherwood. The Sharks hold at least the top two positions in every event in that category. Anna Jaworski has the fastest time in the freestyle with Madison Engel right behind. That duo also leads the backstroke, with teammate Brianna Hanley in third and Cabot’s Rachel Sweeney fourth. Sherwood swimmers hold all five top positions in the girls 1-under breaststroke.
Jaworski, Engel, Allison Copeland, Hanley and Alaya Smith make up the top of that division. Jaworski also has the best time in the butterfly with Hanley at second and Engel fifth, and Engel is first in the IM, 18/100 of a second ahead of Jaworski.
Sherwood’s 10-under boys are almost as dominant. Joseph Potts has the best time in every single event. Vincent Jaworksi joins him in the top five in the freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and IM. Tristen Bowan is second in the backstroke and butterfly, while Nicholas Heye is second in the breaststroke and fourth in the IM.
Sherwood’s Isabelle Sexson leads the 8-under girls in the butterfly and IM. Teammates Alyssa Riley and Olivia Tipton are second and fourth respectively in the freestyle and butterfly. Riley is also fourth in IM.
Michael Sexson is second overall in the boys 8-under freestyle and backstroke, while teammate Michael Hathaway is third in the butterfly, and fourth in the freestyle, breaststroke and IM. Sexson is also fourth in the butterfly and fifth in IM.
In the youngest division, Carly Morrow of Sherwood is third in the freestyle and backstroke, but it’s the butterfly where the Sharks are strongest. Sarah Rounsaville, Faith Wallace and Morrow take up three of the top five slots in that event. Morrow and Rounsaville are also fourth and fifth in the breaststroke.
The Sharks 6-under boys hold the top three rankings in three of the five events, but strangely none show up in the top five of the IM.
Michael Potts, Jacob Hale and Maddux Bowen are one, two and three in the freestyle, with Cabot’s Cameron Johnson not far behind at fifth.
Potts, Hale and teammate Aaron Heck lead the way in the backstroke. In the breaststroke it’s Potts, Maddux then Hale. In the butterfly, the same trio are all in the top five, but Cabot’s Johnson interrupts the stronghold on the top three positions by edging out Bowen for third-best time. Due to the large number of participants, the MOC will be broken up into two meets. The younger age groups will compete in the morning with the older ones competing in the afternoon
