Judge Memorial girls win back-to-back swim titles

Photo courtesy of JMCHS

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Matt Finnigan (right) Judge Memorial Catholic High School head swimming coach, led the girls to their seventh state championship title in eight years at Brigham Young University Feb. 5-6. ?It was a real team effort,? said Finnigan.

PROVO -The Judge Memorial Catholic High School girls swim team successfully defended its 3A State Championship title at Brigham Young University Feb. 5-6. This was the team's seventh championship in eight years.

The boys' team finished fourth, with Oliver Diamond, a senior at Judge Memorial, named the Swimmer of the Meet for the second year in a row. He broke the school record in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 46.98. Last year he tied the record of 48.17. "I worked harder and got stronger this year with more intense training," said Diamond. "I did more specialized weight training, core work and yoga. I had more experience and I figured out how to gain power on the wall."

Matt Finnigan, the Bulldog's head swim coach, said it took all of the girls on his team to beat second-place Park City. "For the last decade we have battled against Park City in the finals," said Finnigan. "It was a real team effort. Every girl who swam put points on the board."

Lydia Jones, a junior, came to Judge from Saudi Arabia this year. She won the 200-yard freestyle and the 500-yard freesyle. "They are not her strongest events, but we needed her there to fill the voids left by last year's graduating seniors," said Finnigan. "Casandra Cokl, a sophomore, and Emily Murnin, a freshman, also helped us in the 200 and the 500 events. Our sophomore class really stepped up as a whole to help us out."

Finnigan said this was the first year he didn't know where he was going to place his girls until he saw Park City's line up.

"The Park City team swims year-round and our team swims four to five months out of the year," said Finnigan. "Our kids are great athletes. At least 75 percent of them play other sports. So we spend three-quarters of our time getting them in shape for swimming and the other quarter of the time getting them to swim fast."

Several Juan Diego Catholic High School swimmers placed in individual events. The Soaring Eagle boys medley relay took first place and set a new school record in the process. The relay consisted of Phillip Hojnacki swimming the backstroke, Yuma Miyai the breaststroke, Isaac Vincent the butterfly, and the anchor was Bryce Finley.

"That was the first event of the meet, which was nice," said John Moran, Juan Diego head swimming coach. "The medley was really close until Isaac and Bryce both pulled away. It was a great way to get things started."

Juan Diego's Kelsey Leeson, a sophomore, won the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle events. Vincent was an Academic All-State winner this year.

Moran said everyone thought Leeson was going to be a basketball player, but she started swimming a few years before coming to Juan Diego. She started working hard and became interested in competition swimming. "As a sophomore, she is a strong leader on the team," said Moran.

Moran said they have a tradition where they bring a bottle of water from the pool they train in and pour it into the pool they compete in, which gets the kids excited.

"We only had eight boys. Over the season they swim 15 hours between 30,000 and 35,000 yards each week," said Moran. "So at the end I let them rest and hoped I hadn't let them rest too much. They also train on dry land doing lunges, running the stairs, broad jumps, sprints and work on their power and speed." Juan Diego boys placed third in the state finals.