Heatwave swimmers take top honors at state meet

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Home News

Boulder City-Henderson Heatwave’s Alex Kulwin, of Bishop Gorman, swims the butterfly during his 400 IM heat for a time of 4:51.25 during the state championships at Desert Breeze Pool on Saturday.

By Jared Harmon (contact)

Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008 | midnight

After four days of races at the Desert Breeze Aquatic Center, it was the Boulder City-Henderson Heatwave that emerged victorious with its sixth straight Nevada Short Course Championship on Nov. 11.

The championship was the Heatwave's 10th in the last 11 years. It compiled 6,064 points to beat the second place Clark County Sandpipers (4,448), third place Reno Aquatic Club (2,348) and fourth place Desert Storm Swimming (1,558).

"We were sort of surprised by the final score," Heatwave coach Bob Swift said. "We were expecting to have a good chance, but I'm not sure anyone expected that big of a margin. We had some real great swims out of a lot of kids."

Thirteen-year-old Jackson Hawkins shed time to move into the finals of several events, while 10-year-old Liam Wetzel dominated the 9 to 10 year old division to earn the age group's high-point award.

Liam competed in seven events, taking second in the 50 breaststroke (38.53 seconds), the 50 butterfly (33.72) and 100 fly (1:17.82) and first place in the 100 freestyle (1:04.60), 50 free (29.70), 100 individual medley (1:14.92) and the 200 IM (2:39.15).

"This was my first time winning high point. It feels pretty good," Liam said.

The Heatwave's Allie Dodds and Addie Oswald — who both attend Green Valley High — picked apart the competition in the girls 15-and-over division to collect a combined six first-place finishes and seven second-place finishes.

While Dodds took home the high-point for the age group, Oswald took the runner-up and achieved her first national qualifying time with her second place finish in the 200 backstroke (2:02.04), earning her a trip to the meet in Atlanta on Dec. 4.

"I feel real good about my meet," Oswald said. "I sort of swam abnormal events for me, so I dropped massive time. I figured this was my last year to swim in this meet so I might as well try some new events. It worked out."

Oswald picked up wins in the 200 free (1:53.00), the 200 IM (2:07.95) and the 100 free (52.97). Dodds added wins in the 1650 free (17:16.60), 500 free (5:05.00) and 100 fly (58.86).

The Heatwave set meet records in four events from the boys 15-and-over division. Green Valley sophomore Robert Hommel established new marks for the 200 IM (1:52.50), the 400 IM (3:59.72) and 500 free (4:31.78) while Southeast Career and Technical Academy senior Johnny Funk set the new record for the 200 back in 1:51:88.

Swift said Funk had established himself as the swimmer to beat in the event earlier in the year but continued to put in hard work on the stroke in preparation for the big meet.

"It feels good to help BCH to another state title," Funk said. "Picking up one more, as a senior, is a good feeling."

Jared Harmon can be reached at 990-8922 or jared.harmon@hbcpub.com.