Jenks Makes Waves with Swim Teams

By MIKE MOGUIN
GTR Sports Writer

Jenks is already making more waves in the pool after sweeping both the boys and girls championships at the Class 6A swim meet last year.
Returning seniors are Jazz Widney and Austin Sung for the boys, and Bella Morrison, Jasmine Rau, Kelsey DeNeen, Payton Pangburn, Laney Fenton, Josie Jones and Gabby Vargus for the girls. 
Fenton won state in the 100 breaststroke and 500 freestyle last year and was also a part of two first-place relay teams. Other swimmers who were part of championship relay teams were Widney, Rau and Vargus. 
“We have some more swimmers who are kind of like a training club, which is a different area, different vision,” Jenks coach Diego Henoa said. “But they are telling me they’ll be back next semester, so that is going to be another improvement for the team.”
Jenks won both meets at the All-State Preview on the boys and girls side against teams from Edmond North, Shawnee, Bixby and Bartlesville on the weekend of Nov. 6-7. It was also perfect in dual meets against Broken Arrow, Bixby and Stillwater on Nov. 17. The events took place at the Jenks Aquatic Center. 
Underclassmen have also competed at meets, which reveals the depth of the talent in the program. 
“I wanted to open options for everyone else to step up to see where the team meets,” Henoa said. “I gave them a chance to compete and see how much talent they have and how the team is looking. I’m just trying to learn and capture a lot of the times from different swimmers and swims that they do.”
The younger swimmers come from a feeding program known as the Jenks Trojan Swim Club. 
“We have a lot of new freshmen who have been swimming for quite awhile and now it’s time for them to shine as high school swimmers,” Henoa said. “So there are several of them back that are really good. There is a lot of potential and talent there, and hopefully, they’re going to be enjoying their training and their meets. That’s what’s usually fun about high school and hopefully, they can step up and take those places.”
Like all other athletic programs, Jenks swimmers are having to deal with COVID-19.  
The team was headed to a meet in Missouri last March 12, when they were notified that they had to turn around because the meet was canceled. That happened to be the same day the OSSAA called off the state basketball tournament. Swimmers had to stop training and were not allowed to return to the Jenks pool until June. 
When practice resumed, measures had to be taken to keep athletes safe. 
“We had stopped for a long time and it has been very challenging,” Henoa said. “Safety is our priority. We go over every safety measure. We are not allowing anyone with symptoms or anything. It is really hard because we only have one pool, but then we need to make sure we can spread (the swimmers) out in the water. And then that’s tough because we also have a lot of swimmers.” 
Henoa said at the beginning, the coaching staff was only allowed to let athletes swim for about 45 minutes to an hour. 
“We later increased the time as they were getting back in shape,” he said. “We are used to it, but we still have a lot of challenges. We have swimmers who have to go online for being too close to someone (who is infected), so they have to take breaks for two weeks. So that’s a challenge.”
The strongest competition this season, Henoa believes, will be Bartlesville on the boys’ side and Union on the girls’ side. 
“The team is looking great,” Henoa said. “We live in a time when it is really tough, but at the same time we are up for the challenge. We’re just going to try to do our best and try to continue the tradition of excellence.”