Jayhawks swimmers set multiple St. Joseph CHS school records in 2024 season

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Three of the St. Joseph boys swim team members are shown with their second-place state meet trophy.

OGDEN — The St. Joseph Catholic High School swim team capped off their 2024 season with several school records as well as a second-place finish for the boys and a sixth-place finish for the girls at the 2A state swim meet, held Feb. 16-17 at Brigham Young University.

Earlier in the year, at the 2A regionals, the Jayhawks came in third (boys) and fourth (girls) and had three individual first-place finishes. Gabe Jones took first place in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:50.33, dropping 5.96 seconds. He also placed first in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of :58.95, dropping 3.99 seconds and breaking his older brother Will’s record by 2.62 seconds.

Also at regions, Lola Goni Beneke took first place in the 200 yard freestyle and broke her own school record by 3.43 seconds. Beneke had broken that record three other times during the season, coach Tim Boothe said.

The girls set five school records this year — three at region and two at state, according to Boothe. In addition to Beneke’s achievement, Mady Yates broke a five-year-old record in the 100 butterfly and Savanna Smith broke the 500 yard freestyle record, dropping four seconds from her previous time.

Not to be outdone, the boys broke the school record in the 200 free relays at region, and the record in 400 free relay was broken twice at state.

“They had a really good showing in 400 freestyle relay with 18 points; that solidified their second place,” Boothe said.

“In state in their relays every one of the boys beat their personal records both times they ran their relays,” he said. “To see that was really neat; they just did a really good job overall.”

Junior Gabe Jones was named 2A Male Swimmer of the Year. At the state meet, he came in first in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 49.27, breaking a state record, and also took first in the 100 yard backstroke (50.11). He had previously broken the 100 yard breaststroke record at region.

Last year at the state meet, Jones also took first in two events.

“He’s got a really good work ethic,” Boothe said. “He was a really big help to us this year as we were trying to finetune all the swimmers, to get them faster and have a better technique.”

Jones follows in the footsteps of his older brother Will, who last year broke two state records at the state meet for the Jayhawks. The brothers are the sons of Clay Jones, St. Joseph Catholic High School’s principal. The Jayhawks train and compete alongside the Ben Lomond High School team, where Boothe is also the coach. Due to changes at Ogden School District, he will be unable to coach the St. Joseph team after this year.

Boothe helped create the St. Joseph swim program in 2017, he said. “Just watching the program grow and the swimmers push and work and devote so much time and energy to swimming is just amazing. It was really neat to watch and be a part of. I’m sad that I won’t be with them next year as their coach, but I still plan on watching them and keeping up on their record breaking and their personal bests. Overall, the St. Joe’s program has come a long way in six years and I’m excited to see where they continue to go.”