The Storm’s eighth-place 400-yard freestyle relay team, from left and clockwise: R.J. Van Sweden, Tony Sirignano, Noah Lee and Philip McLaughlin (bottom center). Courtesy photo.

Cleveland High diver Courtney Trotter’s third-place finish in the 21-meter dive, where her score was 352.8, was the city’s best finish in the state swimming and diving championships, contested as always at the Albuquerque Academy Natatorium. Trotter had been ninth in the event in 2020.
The girls’ meet was held May 13; the boys’ meet took place two days later, when Rio Rancho’s Dylan Bonnett and Cleveland’s Philip McLaughlin had sixth-place finishes to lead the local teams.

Storm girls 15th, Rams 19th
The city teams’ other finishes at state:
• Senior Avyanna Chavez-Rodriguez of Cleveland was ninth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.94.
• CHS was 10th in the 400-yard freestyle relay, where Gracie Espinosa, Jadelyn VanSweden, Avery Banes and Chavez-Rodriguez paddled to a time of 3:56.84.
• RRHS’s Aubrey Rice was 12th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 57.86.
• RRHS’s 200-yard freestyle team — Ava Scholsser, Abigail Patnode, Taylor Bogue and Rice — was 12th in 1:49.
• Chavez-Rodriguez was 13th in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:03.8.
• CHS’s 200-yard medley team — Madison Broom, Espinosa, Chavez-Rodriguez and VanSweden — was 13th in 2:02.45.
• Patnode, only a freshman, was 16th in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:14.63.
The top five girls teams were host Academy (392 points), Eldorado (250), Los Alamos (166), Las Cruces (164) and Clovis (156).

Storm boys 12th, Rams 13th
Bonnett was sixth in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:00.41, while McLaughlin’s sixth-place finish in the 100-yard backstroke was accomplished in 55.71. McLaughlin also had a top-10 finish in the 100-yard freestyle, where he was ninth (49.27).
The city teams’ other finishes at state:
• CHS was eighth in the 400-yard freestyle relay, where Noah Lee, Anthony Sirignano, Robert VanSweden and McLaughlin swam to a time of 3:30.1.
• RRHS was 15th in the 400-freestyle relay, swum by Bonnett, Trenton McDonald, Kevin Perez and Jacob Ahyo (3:39.81).
• The Rams quartet of Perez, Bonnett, Carson Rice and Ahyo was eighth in the 200-yard medley relay, with the Storm (McLaughlin, Seth McLaughlin, Sirignano and Lee) two spots behind in 1:48.72.
• Rio Rancho was 10th in the 200-yard freestyle relay, where Bonnett, McDonald, Rice and Ahyo finished in 1:36.78. The Storm’s foursome of Sirignano, VanSweden, Seth McLaughlin and Lee were 14th (1:38.06) in that event.
• Lee was 15th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 52.05.
The top five boys teams were Los Alamos (397), Eldorado (316), La Cueva (270.5), Albuquerque Academy (240) and Cibola (136).