Tomorrow morning (Thursday, Feb. 16) veteran head coach Jan Olesinski will head up to Albuquerque along with six NMMI high school cadets for the 2023 New Mexico Activities Association’s State Swimming and Diving Championships, held this year again at the Albuquerque Academy Natatorium.
Competition in the two-day event begins on Friday, with five Colts and one Lady Colt qualified and ready to participate.
“We’ll be competing in five individual events and two relays,” explained coach Olesinski. “On the individual side, Lorenzo Cepeda will do the 100 free and the 100 breast. He also qualified for the 50 free, but he’s got a better chance of placing in the other two events.”
“I’m not really concerned about rankings at state,” said Cepeda. “I just want to drop times and try and get close to the school record. I like the 50 free because it’s all about swimming fast and I like to sprint. I’ll try and hydrate well and get plenty of sleep in order to prep for this weekend.”
“Marcos Ramos qualified for the 100 fly and 100 breast,” continued Olesinski. “Marcos is a great swimmer – last year he finished fifth at state. And this year the level of competition is a little bit slower, according to the entry times. He could finish as high as second or third.”
“At state I hope we’re one of the best teams out there,” said Ramos, who likes to listen to music by Mexican cultural icon Vicente Fernandez in order to get pumped up or meets. “I hope to have a good time with my friends.”
“Mary is doing the 50 free and I hope she breaks the school record which was set last year by Tessa Walker,” said coach O. “She’s going to need to swim a more perfect race. The 50 free is a short race, but there’s lots of elements where you can lose time, such as the dive, the flip-turn, the glide, number of strokes.
“I’m really close to the school record, so I hope to go up to state, get a personal best time, break the school record, and make coach Olesinski happy,” said Olvera. “This is my first year going to state, but I’m a junior, so I’ve got one more year to come back.”
That school record for the girls’ 50 free is 26.33; Olvera’s best time this season was just under three-tenths of a second short at 26.62.
The relays will be both for the boys: the 200-yard medley relay and the 200-yard free relay.
The same five Colts make up the legs of both relay squads: seniors Cepeda, Ramos and Jonah Pinon, junior Partap Khalsa, and senior Wade Perry as the alternate.
Four different strokes are used in the medley relay, each 50-yards. Partap will do the backstroke to start, then Cepeda with the breaststroke, Ramos on the fly, and Pinon anchoring the team in the free.
“I honestly just hope to swim well,” said Khalsa. “I missed out on a year, so just glad to get back in and get strong. I’ve been focusing on getting back into shape and working on my technique, in order to get back to where I should be.”
“I’ve been practicing my dives because that’s the weakest part of my swim, and it’s something I can easily take one to two seconds off of our times at state,” explained Pinon. “I think we’ll do pretty well at state – we’ve got a good solid line-up.”
“Right now I’m a reserve but we’re hoping to make the best at state and see how it goes,” said Perry. “I typically swim the backstroke, but can sub in for the freestyle or butterfly if needed. We went to state last year in the same events. If we can drop three seconds from last year’s time, well, that’s what we’ll be shooting for.”
Prelims are slated for most of Friday, with finals and awards set for Saturday.