RR Swim and Dive travels to Hobbs, takes home Bob Reid Invite title

HOBBS — A long drive ended up being a rewarding one for the Rio Rancho High swim and dive team.

Traveling to Hobbs for the Bob Reid Invite Meet, the Rams took home first place on both the boys' and girls' side to capture their first trophies of the season.

“I knew Rio Rancho High School was going to be a lot deeper this year, and that would be huge for our ability to compete,” Rams Head Coach Jeremiah Stanton said. “Our boys and girls team swam with so much energy and power.”

That energy and power were on display across the board over the winning weekend, with the Rams taking first in 10 of the 24 events in the invitational.

The win included some top individual performances, but Rio Rancho’s sweet spot was found in the relay events, taking first in five of them and sweeping the races on the girls’ side.

“We had a lot of personal-best swims and top-place finishes, but that wasn't our focus,” Stanton said. “We really wanted to come in grounded and let our hard work in practice show up.”

Rio Rancho’s girls were led by Kendal Moody, who was a part of two winning relays on top of taking first in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle.

Ahead of Moody in the relays were Orla and Shannon Baiardo, who filled the 2-3 spots for the Rams in the winning effort. Orla and Shannon, along with Chloe Bagley, Elli Garcia and Kostyn Perry, also posted top-five finishes in their respective individual events to create a dominant half-dozen of a relay roster.

On the boys’ side, Xavier King and Sean Bogue both recorded first-place individual finishes, with King in the 200-yard freestyle and Bogue in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The two talents were vocal points in the two relay wins for the boys, along with Ewan Mason, Jacob Rice, Caleb Solis and Charlie Scott strengthening the Rams’ team.

Rio's big day checked off some boxes for the program. All three of each boys' and girls' relay teams qualified for state thanks to their times, along with Moody, Rice, and Bogue posting individual state-qualifying times. Quite the feat this early into the winter season.

“Judging from practices, we had a great feeling that we were going to be able to do some really great things,” Stanton said.

While Rio took first, it wasn’t a Rams runaway. Several schools put together competitive and impressive performances. One of those schools? Cleveland High.

“We traveled with Cleveland to Hobbs,” Stanton said. “Coach Dorman and I have been really excited about this meet for quite some time.”

Cleveland’s Guha Hari took first place in the boys' 100-yard butterfly, with Lucia Pena and Ziyah Rodriguez-Chavez going 1-2 in the girls’ 500-yard freestyle. The Storm capped off their weekend in Hobbs with a relay win in the boys’ 200-yard freestyle, led by Hari, cross-country champion Lucas Espinosa, Mark McLaughlin and Dylan Schluep.

If this past weekend is any indication, it should be a swim season to watch in the City of Vision, with the next meet for the Rams set for Dec. 20 at the Rio Rancho Aquatic Center for the “Eye of the Storm” invite.

“We say, 'We like to cook at practice and feast at the meets,'” Stanton said. “We definitely feasted.”