Ethan Schwager is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Pinnacle High School for AZPreps365.com.

PARADISE VALLEY, ARIZ.—Perry swimming took the sweep on Thursday as the girls beat Pinnacle 108-76, and the boys also came up huge against the Pioneers with a 106-74 victory.

Sometimes the score can tell the story of a sporting event, that is not true in the case of the Perry vs. Pinnacle swim meet. Pinnacle had just come off a good meet against Liberty at Sunrise Pool. The meet was swam in a 25-yard short-course pool, a pool length that is regulation for high school meets across the country.  

Those same conditions didn’t apply to the Thursday afternoon battle between Pinnacle and Perry. The meet was conducted in a 25-meter short-course pool, a change in distance large enough to alter the average race by a couple of seconds per 50. 

Only invitational meets have official times recorded through touchpads in AIA high school swimming, meaning swimmers can only qualify for championship meets through invitational meets. Times are unofficial and are conducted using stopwatches in dual meets such as Perry vs. Pinnacle. These dual meets allow coaches to find their ideal lineups, so teams like Pinnacle are fully prepared for invitationals.

“I was trying people in different events,” Pinnacle boys swimming coach Eric Goldstone said of his meet lineup in Thursday’s defeat. “I get to play around with the order in the relays to try someone in the anchor position and see if there’s someone who can step it up.”

Goldstone says he was impressed by a few of his swimmers stepping up in off-events. One name that came to mind for Goldstone is junior Kyle Rauchle who won the 100-yard breaststroke. 

“I tried [Rauchle] in breaststroke,” Goldstone said. “He swam really well.”

Another male swimmer who performed well for Pinnacle is distance swimmer Micah Spector. 

“I was happy with my swims today, I think my [400] freestyle could’ve been a little faster, but I think I was great overall today,” Spector said. “It wasn’t the ideal performance for all of us, but I think as a team we had great enthusiasm.”

Spector swimming a 400-meter freestyle highlights one of the biggest differences between short-course meters and short-course yards. In meters, swimmers swim 16 lengths to race 400 meters, while 20 lengths is the distance swimmers race when swimming the 500-yard freestyle.

For the girls, races also looked promising under unusual circumstances. There were great races throughout the meet, including Mikayla Knaffla who won the 50-meter freestyle by a full stroke, clocking in unofficially at 29.07.

Other dominant performances from the Pioneers came from Kailah Dauderman and Jordyn Spector. Dauderman, who replaced Emmalee Swank in the No. 7 ranked 200-meter medley relay, split a 39.10 in the breaststroke leg of the race. SUNY Binghamton commit Jordyn Spector also propelled herself to victory with a convincing win in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle.

After the wall was touched for the last time in the boys 4x100-meter freestyle relay, Pinnacle assistant coach Troy Layman shared some thoughts on the dual meet. 

“Ideally you would want to have your best swimmers swim their best events every time they swim,” Layman said. “When we have a team like ours that is so deep, we can switch the lineup around.”

The Pinnacle Pioneers will swim again on Sept. 30, as they face the Desert Mountain Wolves in a dual meet at McDowell Mountain Ranch Pool.