Tigers Claim Swim & Dive Titles

SPRINGDALE -- The Bentonville swim and dive teams huddled and broke out the "I believe that we just won" chant minutes after the North District meet ended. Not that the Tigers' victory was a surprise. It's become an annual tradition. Bentonville's boys team won its 11th consecutive conference title, a feat the Tigers hope translates to an 11th consecutive state championship next week. The Lady Tigers also hope their latest conference championship translates into a successful defense of their state title. "It is that expectation that it is Bentonville," Tigers coach Nick Nersesian said of continuing the dominant run. "Not only swimming, it's every sport. Across the board, we won 12 championships last year with all the sports. That's that expectation. It's a program that was built. The coaches know what it takes. The kids know what it takes." Bentonville's boys totaled 574.5 points, easily outdistancing runner-up Fayetteville's 329 points and third-place Springdale Har-Ber's 308 points. The Lady Tigers tallied 560 points to outpace runner-up Fayetteville's 291 points and Springdale High's 260 points. Bentonville's boys team won 11 of 12 events. Sophomore standout Taylor Pike led the way for Bentonville's girls team with individual event wins in the 50 and 500-yard freestyles while also swimming the anchor leg on first-place 400 freestyle and 200 medley relay teams. Bentonville was also able to qualify Dale Hogan, Cole Reitnauer and Ryan Reddell in its final meet prior to state. Both Tigers teams will try to defend their state titles in Little Rock next weekend, where the top challengers may be Little Rock Catholic on the boys side or Conway on the girls side. "We swam well, but we have a lot to work on," Nersesian said. "If we want to repeat at state, we've got fine-tuning to do. We have things to work on, turns and starts and things we need to be working on. We need our captains. We need them to step it up. We need that leadership to get us over the top." While Bentonville dominated, Fayetteville was the best of the rest for boys and girls. Jack Norys' second-place finish in the 100 free led the way to the boys' second-place finish. On the girls side, Fayetteville's 400 free relay team of Morgan Martin, Lia Rubinelli, Macy Valentine and Sarah Welcher finished second. "Bentonville's still leaps and bounds above the competition, but it was a good team effort," Fayetteville coach Michael Kaminski said. "We were happy with how we finished." Ryan Reed earned a first-place finish in the 1-meter dive competition for third-place Springdale Har-Ber. Springdale's Lauren Lamaestra won the 100 breast for the third-place Lady Bulldogs. Reed and Bentonville's Isabelle D'Spain won the district's diving competition at the University of Arkansas' HPER facility in Fayetteville earlier in the day. In the small schools division, Clarksville won the boys and girls team titles.

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Bentonville High School Athletics

TIGERS CLAIM SWIM & DIVE TITLES

JIMMY CARTER

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | 2/19/2015

PHOTO CREDIT: Arkansas Democrat