Grossheim qualifies for two events in Los Lunas
Trenton Grossheim helped Farmington's 400-yard freestyle team qualify for state during Saturday's meet, and the senior also made the cut in the 100-yard butterfly event
FARMINGTON — Trenton Grossheim and the Farmington swim team set some lofty goals prior to the season, and they're doing a good job of steadily checking those goals off their list so far this fall.
Grossheim, a senior, qualified for state in the 100-yard butterfly and the Scorpions qualified their 400-yard freestyle relay team when FHS and Piedra Vista swam in the Second Annual Tiger-Jaguar Invitational on Saturday at Los Lunas High School.
"They're just really working well together as a team," said FHS and PV swim coach Kristi Lucero. "Before the season, they said they wanted to qualify every relay team, and so far, they've qualified on the first try in every relay that they swam."
Marshall Magnuson, Ethan Larson, Tyler Duncan and Grossheim made up the state-qualifying squad from Farmington. They finished second in Saturday's race with a time of 3 minutes and 42.09 seconds. Grossheim, who Lucero said has worked hard in practice, finished the butterfly in 55.17 seconds, less than two seconds out of first place.
"Trent is an amazing kid and a hard worker," Lucero said. "Every time he's at practice, he works as hard as he can, and the rest of the boys really follow suit."
The Scorps finished third overall behind first-place Clovis and Los Lunas. Piedra Vista's boys landed in 15th place out of 17 schools.
PV's girls took third overall, while the Lady Scorpions swam to the eighth-place spot.
The Lady Panthers' 200-yard freestyle relay team missed out on qualifying for state by nine-tenths of a second in Los Lunas. Lucero said she's confident that once the swimmers make adjustments, they'll reach their desired time the next chance they get.
"We'll make some technical adjustments to that relay," Lucero said. "Nine-tenths is very doable. It was still the best time of the season for them."
Also qualifying for state on Saturday were PV divers Ben VanOtteson and Eliana Christensen and Farmington diver Claire Madera.
VanOtteson, diving for the first time this year after finishing the cross-country season, scored a 188.30, the highest out of three competitors.
Now that they've qualified for state, the plan moving forward for Madera and Christensen is to mix more complex dives into their repertoires to impress at state.
"Their goal is to be in the medal round at state," Lucero said of Madera and Christensen. "They're going to switch up their diving list and up the degree of difficulty of their dives to give them a better shot at making that medal round."
PV and Farmington are off for Thanksgiving. They will get back into the pool on Dec. 3 for the Scorpion Invitational at the Farmington Aquatic Center.
Jake Newby covers sports for The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4577.