By Chadron Sharks
Ten members of the Chadron Sharks Swim Team traveled to Rapid City December 13-14, 2023 to compete against 222 swimmers from 11 teams representing South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska. All of the Sharks are making massive improvements and continue to take significant time off their events.
The Sharks added two more swimmers to the team who will be competing at the State Championships in February 2024. Valeria Benitez-Socarrás, age 15, and Raylie Pourier, age 16, have both qualified to compete in the 50 Freestyle, and will join Carter Peters, age 14, who will be competing in the 50 and 100 Freestyle, and Bohdan Shevchenko, age 16, who will be competing in the 50 and 100 Freestyle, 100 and 200 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke, and 200 Individual Medley.
The Christmas Classic started Saturday with 2 relay teams from the Sharks competing in the 400 Yard Medley Relay. In their first time competing as a relay team, CSST-A, which consisted
of Shevchenko (backstroke), Benitez-Socarrás (breaststroke), Pourier (butterfly) and Peters (freestyle) placed 8th out of the 14 teams that entered the competition with a time of 4:50.91. The CSST-B team, which was also competing for the first time as a relay team, disqualified. Sunday began with 2 more Sharks relay teams competing in the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay.
CSST-A, again consisting of Pourier, Benitez-Socarrás, Peters, and Shevchenko, had an exciting finish going to the wall, edging out a team from Sturgis, SD, and placed 5th out of 13 teams with a time of 4:16.12. CSST-B, competed for the first time together as a relay team on Sunday, and raced with Jessalinn Dieriex, Fabiola Benitez-Socarrás, Rex Ritterbush, and Kenzie Pourier, and placed 11th with a time of 6:35.72.
Fabiola Benitez-Socarrás (age 11): 50 Yard Back - 52.74 (-2.38), 22nd place; 50 Yard Free -1:00.76, 28th place; 50 Yard Breast - 1:00.41, 22nd place; 200 Yard Breast - 5:13.47, 5th place;
100 Yard Back - 2:05.54 (-2.11), 16th place; 100 Yard Free - 2:12.18, 20th place; 100 Yard Breast - 2:29.14, 20th place
Madeline Bower (age 11): 100 Yard Individual Medley - 1:37.17, 13th place; 50 Yard Back -45.82, 15th place; 50 Yard Free - 40.94 (-5.36), 21st place; 50 Yard Breast - 48.96 (-9.31), 11th
place Abigail Bower (age 14): 200 Yard Free - DQ; 100 Yard Butterfly - DQ; 50 Yard Free - 36.33(-3.89), 14th place
Rex Ritterbush (age 14): 200 Yard Free - 3:54.75, 9th place; 200 Yard Back - 4:12.08 (-20.00),6th place; 200 Yard Breast - 4:02.25 (-24.10), 12th place; 100 Yard Back - 1:49.85, 10th place;100 Yard Free - 1:38.42 (-20.41), 12th place; 100 Yard Breast - 1:50.01, 12th place
Carter Peters (age 14) - 200 Yard Free - DQ; 100 Yard Butterfly - 1:17.52 (-9.00), 5th place; 200
Yard Back - 2:49.88 (-28.81), 5th place; 50 Yard Free - 27.87 (-1.96), 5th place; 200 Yard Breast
- 3:06.67 (-28.50), 10th place; 200 Yard Individual Medley - 2:42.19 (-14.06), 5th place; 100
Yard Back - 1:16.66 (-6.06), 6th place; 100 Yard Free - 1:02.43 (-1.00), 3rd place; 100 Yard
Breast - 1:25.78 (-1.76), 8th place
Valeria Benitez-Socarrás (age 15): 200 Yard Free - 2:55.85 (-9.88), 6th place; 200 Yard Back -
3:12.43 (-14.16), 7th place; 50 Yard Free - 31.64 (-1.11), 9th place; 200 Yard Breast - DQ; 100
Yard Back - 1:29.03 (-2.13), 9th place; 100 Yard Free - 1:16.89 (-0.48), 10th place; 100 Yard
Breast - 1:44.50, 9th place
Raylie Pourier (age 16): 100 Yard Butterfly - 1:16.69 (-6.94), 6th place; 50 Yard Free - 29.79, 5th
place; 200 Yard Breast - 3:26.15, 5th place; 200 Yard Individual Medley - 2:59.45 (-3.81), 7th
place; 100 Yard Back - 1:18.22 (-3.83), 7th place; 100 Yard Free - 1:11.29, 8th place; 100 Yard
Breast - 1:30.32 (-2.40), 5th place
Bohdan Shevchenko (age 16): 50 Yard Free - 22.81 (-0.03), 2nd place; 200 Yard Individual
Medley - 2:15.42, 3rd place; 100 Yard Breast - 1:07.11, 3rd place
Jessalinn Dieriex (age 17): 200 Free - 3:38.45 (-38.96), 5th place; 50 Yard Free - 43.04 (-3.40),
10th place; 1000 Yard Free - 20:56.86, 3rd place; 100 Yard Back - 1:58.15, 5th place; 100 Yard
Free - 1:37.14 (-14.35), 9th place; 500 Yard Free - 9:40.46, 6th place
Kenzie Pourier (age 17): 200 Yard Individual Medley - 3:!7.24, 7th place; 100 Yard Back -
1:24.72, 4th place; 100 Yard Free - 1:24.87, 8th place; 100 Yard Breast - 1:46.22, 9th place; 500
Yard Free - 7:54.44, 5th place
The next meet for the Chadron Sharks will be the Black Hills Gold Pentathlon in Spearfish,
December 16th.