WyoPreps Spotlight: Green River’s Tavia Arnell and Tanith Smith [VIDEO]
The talented and young duo of Tavia Arnell and Tanith Smith helped the Green River Wolves to a runner-up finish at the Class 3A girls' state swim meet earlier this month.
Arnell, just a freshman, won the 200 IM at a time of 2:10.67 and with a margin of victory that neared nine seconds. She finished first in the 100-butterfly race at a time of 59.14 seconds and was the only swimmer that had a time under one minute.
Smith won the two sprint freestyle events. She touched the wall first in the 50-freestyle at a time of 24.42 seconds. Smith came back later in the meet and defended her title in the 100-freestyle at a time of 53.31 seconds. She is already a four-time individual event state champ through her sophomore year.
WyoPreps spoke to the young Green River duo about their event wins, coming in second as a team, and more.
Both Arnell and Smith also swam on Green River’s winning 400-freestyle relay team.
Smith won two events at the 2021 state championships and was on two victories relays. She has six titles in her career over two state meets.
Both Arnell and Smith were rated second or third behind Cody’s Tara Joyce in all four freestyle events and the 100-backstroke event during the 2022 season. Arnell also had the second-fastest in-season times behind Joyce in the IM and fly, while she was second in the breaststroke behind Payton Yost of Douglas.
The Wolves will be anchored by the talented duo for the next two years.