Put to the test, the Miners gave it their all against some top-flight competition and came out the other side with a couple top-five finishes.
Last week, the Park City High School swim team competed in two laborious invitationals in a three-day span against some of the best teams in the entire state, 1A to 5A.
“Our kids were right in there, and they were tired,” said Miners’ head coach Mike Werner. “That’s a killer week. A tough week of competition, then practices, then coming in Saturday, that’s a brutal stretch. Our swimmers looked really, really good.”
On Saturday Park City finished third in the PCHS Invitational swim meet against 11 out-of-town teams.
Bingham (5A) finished first overall with a score of 869.5.
Judge Memorial was the runner-up with a score of 582, ahead of the Miners, with a score of 503.
“Last Thursday and Friday we beat the kids up in practice just like we do before any other meet,” Werner said. “But the kids like to have that big invitational. They like to get up and race against the big guys, and we really did well. They stepped up and wanted to compete against new people.”
The new adversaries included Bingham, Tooele, Riverton, Logan, Stansbury and East.
Werner said he wanted his team to focus on relay swims last Wednesday in the Region 10 Invitational where the Miners finished fourth. On Saturday, the spotlight was on individual efforts in the water.
“Our individual strokes looked great,” he said. “It was fun. The kids swam very, very well.”
Seniors Dusty Ragland and Zach Carfi were stars in the pool for Park City, Werner said.
Carfi finished first in the boys’ 100-yard breastroke (1:05.39) and second in the boys’ 200-yard individual medley (2:12.66).
Ragland finished first in the both boys’ 50-yard freestyle (21.83) and 100-yard freestyle (48.99).
The pair was also part of a second-place 200-yard medley relay team, along with Hayden Peterson and Jensen Howard.
“They had big days for us,” Werner said.
He said Hailey Shand also had a banner day for Park City as she finished third in the girls’ 100-yard backstroke (1:03.83) and sixth in the girls’ 200-yard freestyle (2:08.89).
“She had an in-season best in 100-back and she anchored a couple of relays for us,” Werner said. “She was pretty solid.”
Werner said he was excited to welcome Tooele into his backyard, saying the Buffaloes boys’ team is a storied program and is led by a “long standing icon in Utah swimming” in head coach Mel Roberts. The Park City boys edged the Buffaloes 298-262.5.
“That team is a different dynamic,” he said. “It was fun to swim against them.”
The Miners now have two weeks off from competition, but will continue training in the pool.
But once they get back to work, it’ll be full bore once again.
Park City is scheduled to face off against 4A powerhouse American Fork and 5A Lone Peak in American Fork on Wednesday, Nov. 30, and then swim in Draper against 5A Alta the next day.