Palo Verde nets boys, girls titles

Palo Verde's four-headed monster of Jake Priest, Jay Sirat, Cody Miller and Gianni Sesto came through on Saturday night in the Sunset Region boys swimming and diving championship.

The four swimmers paced three winning relay teams and combined for eight top-three finishes as the Panthers dominated the competition at UNLV, taking the boys title with 453 points.

Cimarron-Memorial was a distant second with 251.5 and Arbor View was third at 251.

"We told some of the other guys we need them to step up; we needed that insurance going into state," Panthers coach Bob Nicholson said. "But we got some wonderful surprises. We didn't get too intense with them. We just told them to go out and win it in the pool."

Those surprises gave Nicholson a little extra hop in his step, particularly Andrew Chin's performance in the 100-yard backstroke. Chin clocked a third-place time of 57.10 seconds, behind Sierra Vista's Matthew Rosenfeld (53.83) and Faith Lutheran's Donald Pearson (53.99).

"Jay Sirat did amazing today, really got some amazing times, and Robbie Hill stepped up and did well," Nicholson said. "But Andrew Chin was just phenomenal with that backstroke, getting the third position. To see a guy go out and do what he says he's going to do for you, what else can you say for the kid? It's just great."

Nicholson said that the performance of Palo Verde's top swimmers trickles down throughout the team.

"When they're swimming against each other and with each other, they're all pulling for their personal bests, but they're also pulling for their team," said Nicholson, whose girls team also won the Sunset Region with 438 points, ahead of Bishop Gorman (306) and Centennial (273). "It rubs off on our secondary swimmers and our third-level swimmers. It's one big team -- and that showed tonight."

Faith Lutheran's Samantha Pearson, Donald Pearson's older sister, also had a big day.

Pearson broke a Sunset Region record by winning the 100 backstroke in 57.96 seconds, and she placed second in the 200 freestyle.

"Sam swims yards a day with her club team, and then she comes and swims more yards for us," Faith Lutheran coach Stephen Blank said. "She's an example to the team on how to be both a club swimmer and a high school swimmer, and yet still be a team player."