Small-town swimming champions willing to go the distance in the pool, out of it to succeed

Heber City • There are times when small-town athletes must overcome long distances and sacrifices to excel in high school sports.

Take for example Beaver swimmer Rachel McMaster, who won the 200-yard freestyle state title and took second in the 50 freestyle at Thursday’s Class 3A state swimming championships at the Wasatch Aquatic Center.

McMaster was one of many compelling stories at the small-school swim meet that saw Rowland Hall win its first girls’ state title and Emery capture its third boys’ championship before a standing-room only crowd.

McMaster is the only member of Beaver’s swim team. Because the town’s tiny pool is closed in the winter, she drives 90 miles roundtrip daily to train with a club team in Cedar City.

“I started swimming in Alaska,” the junior swimmer said. “We moved to Japan, and I was on a team there. Then we moved to Salt Lake, and I was on a team there. I wasn’t going to stop swimming because I love it.”

McMaster, who won the 100 freestyle last year, said her father is a teacher at Beaver after serving in the Air Force. She expects the family to stay in her new hometown for a while.

There were a number of new faces and schools that have added swim teams competing in the meet.

For example, Maeser Prep’s Tony Puertas won only the second and third first-place swim medals in the school’s history by setting a pool record of 1 minute, 54.58 seconds in the 200 individual medley, the 11th fastest time in Utah history. He followed that with another pool record and eighth-fastest Utah time in the 100 butterfly.

“We have a new team,” said Puertas, who won the school’s first individual title last year and was named boys’ swimmer of the year. “I was definitely happy with that time. It was a personal best.”

Puertas said swimming in Heber City was challenging because of the higher altitude.

Millard’s Drew Roper, who celebrated her 17th birthday with titles in the 100 breaststroke and 100 freestyle and by winning girls’ swimmer of the year, also was symbolic of a new guard in small-town swimming program.

She was part of a tiny group of Millard swimmers who made the 30-mile one-way drive from Fillmore to swim at rival Delta as a freshman. She said the sport grew in interest to the point where Millard hired a coach and got time in Fillmore’s pool to train.

The result was a feel-good story where the Eagles have become one of the more competitive teams in an interesting classification that features teams from rural towns such as Castle Dale, Moab and Fillmore competing against smaller private schools from the Salt Lake area such as Judge Memorial and Rowland Hall.

Grantsville, which saw Savannah Thomas and Hadlee Begay both win two individual titles, is another up-and-coming program that doesn’t have a home pool. Grantsville trains at the Tooele pool.

The Rowland Hall girls used good depth to claim the school’s first girls’ state swimming title. Sophomore Ella Vitek was the only individual winner, taking first in the 50 freestyle.

“I knew my girls were good, but I didn’t realize they were going to perform that good,” Rowland Hall coach Amelia Wolfgramm said. “I knew it was going to be a tight race. …No words. Don’t know if I can adequately say how I feel right now.”

Carbon, whose coach Tamara Davis won the classification’s coach of the year honors, finished second, while the Emery girls took third.

On the boys side, Emery won its third title. Coach Andrea Johansen said depth was the key to the win.

“It was a whole team that did it instead of a couple of few,” she said.

North Summit and Judge finished second and third in the boys’ team standings. South Summit’s Mike Ruf was coach of the year.