Making a Splash

Highlanders boys beat Truckee behind strong swims from Dewey, Donovan

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Kyle Magin
Bonanza Staff Writer
March 26, 2008

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The Incline High School boys swimming team benefited from a 17-second improvement from last year out of junior Kevin Donovan in the 200 yard freestyle race to cement a victory over Truckee at Friday's meet.

Highlanders coach Stefin Von Hartitzsch said Donovan's 200 time- 2 minutes, 31.22 seconds- shocked him.

"It definitely took me by surprise," Von Hartitzsch said. "He was doing well in practice, but I had no idea it would be 17 seconds."

The meet, which took place at the Incline Village Recreation Center, featured Incline versus Truckee and Reno High School against Galena High School. The Incline boys beat Truckee 83-53. while the Truckee girls bested the Lady Highlanders 145-72.

Donovan's time was good for third place in the meet, but since swimmers from Reno High School were the only two to finish ahead of him, Donovan won the race's points against Truckee.

Donovan's performance wasn't the only highlight for the boys team in the meet.

A relay team of Donovan, senior Chris Dewey, and juniors Riley Warren and Nels Hansen placed second in the 200 medley relay, finishing ahead of Truckee by one second. The same team beat Truckee by taking second in the 200 yard freestyle relay.

Dewey turned in a time of 22.85 seconds in the 50 yard freestyle, good for first place, followed by Warren in fourth place with a time of 26.34.

The boys finished the meet strong as Dewey took second in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 11:11.92.

"The boys were much faster than I thought they'd be. I was really happy with this whole meet," Von Hartitzsch said.

He pointed to first-year swimmers, freshmen Alexis Dewey and Autumn Burnett and sophomore Michaela Tonking as assets to the girls' team, who finished behind Truckee.

"The younger swimmers all came in and contributed , which is good to see in a first meet because you're never sure how they'll perform," Von Hartitzsch said.

They performed well, Von Hartitzsch said, as sophomore Jordan Petrilla, juniors Jitana Alba and Jill Colbert and senior Lauren Harris all matched their best times from last year.

The meets highlights for the girls included a fourth place finish from Petrilla in the 50 free with a time of 29.52, and Alexis Dewey scored a fifth place finish in the 100 free.

The team is back in action on Thursday at Reno Northwest, where it swims with Sparks and Hug high schools.

Von Hartitzsch said the team will work on their turns this week to boost their times.