High school swimming season gets off blocks at Fernley Invitational

Written by Jeff Richards
November 6, 2022
Competitors in the boys individual medley at the Greg Fernley Invitational swim meet at the Utah Tech campus, St. George, Utah, Nov. 4, 2022 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — The high school swim season kicked off with the Greg Fernley Invitational meet on Friday and Saturday.

Swimmers compete in the girls medley relay at the Greg Fernley Invitational, St. George, Utah, Nov. 4-5, 2022 | Photo courtesy of Jason Walker, St. George News

The event, which was held for the first time at Utah Tech University’s Human Performance Center, attracted more than 500 athletes from a total of 22 schools, including all seven Region 10 teams, plus other Southern Utah teams such as Canyon View and Parowan.

Cedar High School was the top performing Southern Utah team at the meet, placing third in both the girls and boys divisions. American Fork High School was the overall winner in both. See top team results at bottom of story.

Following are selected highlights from the meet, focusing on top-five finishes by Southern Utah athletes:

In the girls meet, Chesney Bonner of Desert Hills won both of her individual events. Bonner won the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 1:00.83 and the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 1:00.19.

Pine View junior Sorina Rom won the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 1:09.99. Rom also placed second out of more than 60 competitors in the 200 free, posting a time of 2:03.22. Placing third in the 200 free was Cedar High’s Addison Taylor, who also took third in the 500 free.

Aspen Simper of Cedar placed fourth in the 50 free with a time of 26.43 seconds. More than 230 swimmers competed in the event.

Competitors in the boys individual medley at the Greg Fernley Invitational swim meet at the Utah Tech campus, St. George, Utah, Nov. 4, 2022 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News

Dylan Romprey of Desert Hills took third out of more than 150 swimmers in the 100 free, posting a time of 57.65. Her teammate Emma Brown placed fourth in the 200-yard individual medley.

Freshman Kate Walker of Crimson Cliffs placed fourth in the 100 fly with a time of 1:03.39. She also placed sixth in the 50 free.

Meanwhile, in the boys meet, Walker’s older brother, junior Josh Walker of Crimson Cliffs, placed first out of more than 210 swimmers in the 50 free. His winning time was 22.44 seconds. Josh Walker also placed third in the 100 back with a time of 53.99 and swam the backstroke leg of Crimson’s 200 medley relay, which placed third overall.

Dixie High had two swimmers place highly in distance races, with Damon Erickson taking third in the 200 free and David Leon-Moreno taking third in the 500 free.

Cedar’s Tanner Dodds placed fourth in the 500 free. Cedar’s boys placed third in both the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay, with Dixie taking fifth in the latter event.

Additionally, Canyon View’s Kurt Morgan placed second in the 100 fly with a time of 56.22.

“Dixie High School did a really good job on putting the event on,” said Cedar head coach Megan Moses. “We are so grateful to the Utah Tech University for letting us be there.”

For complete meet results, click here.

Next up for local high school swimmers will be the Cedar Invitational at the Cedar City Aquatic Center this coming weekend. Scheduled start times are 5:15 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Greg Fernley Invitational, St. George, Nov. 4-5

Top 10 girls team results

  1. American Fork, 411.
  2. Ridgeline, 282.
  3. Cedar, 258.
  4. Lehi, 244.
  5. Skyridge, 240.
  6. Westlake, 222.
  7. Murray, 207.
  8. Desert Hills, 195.
  9. Mountain Ridge, 179.
  10. Crimson Cliffs, 173.

Top 10 boys team results

  1. American Fork, 348.
  2. Skyridge, 304.
  3. Cedar, 269.
  4. Crimson Cliffs, 259.
  5. Lehi, 255.
  6. Woods Cross, 201.
  7. Desert Hills, 188.
  8. Dixie, 176.
  9. Mountain Ridge, 169.
  10. Murray, 166.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Richards, a native of Salt Lake City with family roots in Panguitch, lived in Moab for 20 years before joining St. George News in 2017. Jeff is a longtime journalist and secondary school teacher. He and his wife Penny are the parents of five daughters. They also have three young grandsons. Jeff and his family enjoy swimming, camping, sightseeing, reading, and taking pictures.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @stgnews@moabjeff@stgnewssports

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