Swimming

Eleanor Geraghty continued her progress in the pool recently, wrapping up the summer swimming season this past weekend by placing fourth in the 50-meter freestyle at the Far Westerns Championship meet in Concord, California

The 14-year-old Geraghty closed in 27.93 seconds in the age 13-14 girls final for the Rogue Rapids Swim Team. The Far Westerns Championship featured 99 swim teams and nearly 1,300 athletes from 10 states, Canada and Mexico.

A little closer to home, Geraghty was one of several local swimmers who previously shined at the 11-and-over Oregon Swimming Championships in Gresham, winning three gold medals and one silver medal for her efforts.

With her wins at the state meet, Geraghty boosted her total to 15 individual Oregon Swimming championship titles in her youth career — equaling the number of titles won by her mother, Dr. Laurel Naversen Geraghty, in the 1980s and ‘90s before she went on to earn first-team All-Ivy League honors as team captain at Brown University.

The elder Geraghty still holds South Medford High School swimming freestyle records (as Laurel Naversen) dating from 1992 and 1993.

Geraghty won the 14-year-old girls 50 freestyle (27.79), 100 butterfly (1:06.25) and 100 freestyle (1:00.45) while also finishing runner-up in the 200 freestyle (2:14.92). As the sole Rogue Rapids representative for head coach Aaron Ghiglieri, Geraghty’s points were enough to push the team into 17th place out of 27 in the girls state meet.

Racing for the Superior Aquatics Swim Team, brothers Joyner and Ryder Statz were joined by Eli Stebbins in posting a host of top-eight marks in the boys meet, while Brie Chamberland and Sanibel Miller also fared well in the girls meet.

The 12-year-old Chamberland was third in the 50 breaststroke (39.07) and sixth in the 100 breaststroke (1:29.35) to build on her resume as an up-and-coming talent in the pool, while Miller was seventh in the 50 freestyle (31.02) and 100 freestyle (1:07.04) and eighth in the 200 freestyle (2:28.02) in the same age classification.

The duo also swam a leg with Emilie Alvarez and Leilanai Kamei on the age 11-12 freestyle relay team that placed eighth for Superior Aquatics.

Ryder Statz got the slight edge over Joyner Statz in total points earned for the boys team after the 11-year-old standout earned a silver medal in the 100 butterfly (1:28.78), scored bronze in the 400 freestyle (5:29.66), placed fourth in the 100 freestyle (1:11.74), fifth in the 100 backstroke (1:25.85) and seventh in the 50 freestyle (33.59).

Joyner Statz, also 11, was second in the 200 freestyle (2:34.44), third in the 50 freestyle (32.98), sixth in the 100 freestyle (1:12.28) and eighth in the 100 breaststroke (1:38.03).

Stebbins, 13, was fourth in the 100 freestyle (59.98), fifth in the 50 freestyle (27.63), sixth in the 200 freestyle (2:15.44) and seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:25.37).

During the 10-and-under Oregon Swimming Championships, Superior Aquatics registered placing efforts from Genevieve Miller and Maanya Mittal in the age 10 girls division and Charlie Walker in the age 8 girls division.

Miller was third in the 100 freestyle (1:19.34) and 200 freestyle (2:57.15), placed fourth in the 50 freestyle (35.06), seventh in the 200 individual medley (3:26.85) and eighth in the 100 breaststroke (1:51.10).

Mittal was fifth in the 50 breaststroke (49.95) and seventh in the 100 breaststroke (1:48.87), while Walker touched fourth in the 50 freestyle (45.61).