Riley Sewell qualifies for State swim meet, twice

Socorro High School swimmer Riley Sewell qualified for this year’s state swim meet in two events, the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle. The 2026 NM State Championship swim meet will take place at the Albuquerque Academy Natatorium on Feb. 20-21. 

“I'm really happy. I hope I perform well at state, but I don't know. I'm just happy to be there, because I did not think I would make state my sophomore year. I was like, Oh my gosh, these qualifying times are so fast, maybe junior, senior year,” Sewell said. “So, when I qualified, like, halfway through the season, I was so surprised, and then qualifying two events is just so nice. So I feel pretty good.”

Prelims will be on Friday, Feb. 20, and the finals will be on Saturday, Feb. 21. The prelim meet will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday. Looking at the times of the other state qualifiers, Sewell knows that he is currently within the top 20. However, only the top 16 swimmers in his events advance to the finals on Saturday.

“I do have to have a good day and cut some time if I'm looking to make finals. So hopefully that happens,” Sewell said. “I'm doing better in the 100 than the 50, just because I don't really consider myself a sprinter. Sprinting is so hard, like one thing goes wrong and boom, you have a terrible time. So I have to swim a really good race to try to make that top 16,” Sewell said.

Sewell first joined a swim team at eight years old and then joined the SHS swim team when he was in seventh grade. Only eighth grade and up can swim at the meets, but he practiced with the team because he was determined to get ready for the next year. 

His time in the pool is paying off with these qualifying times in his sophomore year. One SHS swimmer qualified for state two years ago, and before that it was in about 2010 that a Socorro swimmer had last qualified. Sewell and his teammates are looking forward to their chances next year.

“Our freelay [freestyle relay] was close too, but maybe next year. I have hope, because nobody's graduating. Our relay is all juniors, me and then a freshman. So we're gonna stick around, get faster, and hopefully qualify next year,” Sewell said. “I love my team. If I had it my way, I would have rather had a relay qualify than just me qualify.”

On Friday, some of Sewell’s teammates, including his relay teammates, will travel to Albuquerque as well to cheer him on. Weekday swim practices have continued as usual as coaches Kirsten Dow, Cody Johnston and Denise Gilson help him to prepare for state. 

A busy schedule continues after the swim meet for Sewell, who said his days are usually filled from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. His team made it to the NM State Championships for Science Olympiad, which will be at New Mexico Tech on Feb. 28. Several swimming teammates are also science teammates for Sewell.

“Abby Cadol, Timur Aitbayev and Lincoln Wilkinson are all on our swim team, and they're working hard for Science Olympiad as well,” Sewell said.

Track and field season is just around the corner, and Sewell will have to switch gears to get back in full running form. He will compete in 2-mile, mile and 800 meter events. Then he’ll be back in the water when the city pool opens up for the summer, always in motion.