The relay teams earned a lot of points for the two as three of Hope's relays got 1st place. The mixed gender, all ages 100 Yard Freestyle Relay, consisting of 16-year-old Emily Garcia, 12-year-old Ben Stewart, 14-year-old Abigail Crow, and 12-year-old Vanessa Ortiz, the mixed gender 8 & under 100 yard freestyle relay, consisting of 6-year-old Michael Massenelli, 6-year-old Carter Wilcox, 5-year-old Khloe Rodgers, and 6-year-old Hollis Wilson, and the 14 & Under girls 200 yard relay, consisting of 12-year-old Zoie Cox, 13-year-old Addison McEuen, 14-year-old Abigail Crow and 13-year-old Sadie Knoll, all earned top spots at the meet on Saturday.
Zoie Cox earned two other 1st place finishes in the 12 & Under girls 50 yard breast with a time of 46.86 and in the 12 & Under girls 50 yard freestyle with a time of 39.53. Vanessa Ortiz also placed top three in the 12 & Under girls 50 yard freestyle with a time of 41.15. Ortiz placed 2nd in the 50 yard backstroke as well with a time of 46.78.
Sadie Knoll also had a fantastic meet with her first place finish in the all ages 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:32.45, beating out a 17 and an 18-year-old from Mena. Knoll also placed 2nd in the all ages 100 yard backstroke with a time of 1:29.54 and in the 14 & Under 100 yard freestyle with a time of 1:21.64.
Hollis Wilson and eight-year-old Sophie Stewart both placed top two in the all ages 25 yard butterfly with times of 44.46 and 49.08 respectively.
The Hope boys team were second to last, but only brought three swimmers to the meet this weekend with 12-year-old Ben Stewart, 6-year-old Michael Massenelli, 6-year-old Carter Wilcox who earned a combined total of 31 points.
Massenelli got 2nd place in his only individual event, the 6 & under boys 25 yard freestyle with a time of 41.34 while Stewart got 1st place in the 12 & under boys 50 yard fly with a time of 54.95 as well as 2nd place in the boys 100 yard individual medley (IM) with a time of 1:46.07.
Adyson Crow, Abigail Crow, Ben Stewart and Sadie Knoll will all be traveling to Pine Bluff this upcoming weekend for the AAU State Junior Olympics Qualifier Meet in the hopes off qualifying for the junior olympics this year. The Crows are hoping for their first time qualifying for the Junior Olympics while Stewart and Knoll have qualified before. Knoll has been to the Junior Olympics in both Iowa in 2018 and North Carolina in 2019 while Ben qualified for the North Carolina Junior Olympics in 2019.
Photos by Hope Swim Coach Amy Knoll