For the Los Lunas Stingrays swim club, Saturday's Sundance Aquatic Association finals were an opportunity for its youngest swimmers to show how close they were to breaking into the league's elite. For one of the Stingrays' older swimmers, it meant he had arrived at that elite level.

Ryan Lupi won the Sundance title in the boys 100-yard breaststroke in the 13-14 age group with a time of 1:14.86, beating two Highpoint Sports & Wellness opponents by less than a half-second. It was the highlight of a meet in which a few Stingrays stars accounted for most of the team's points. Those who finished barely out of the money, however, show much promise for the years to come.

"I'm very happy for Ryan," said Michael Checkley, the Stingrays' first-year head coach. "He'd made some major improvements."

The multi-talented Lupi, 14, also plays guitar, having performed the national anthem at Stingrays competition in the past. He and his siblings have worked hard at improving swim times, and his brothers, Mitchell and Randall, also competed at Sundance on Saturday.

Lupi also placed fourth in his age group's individual medley, and was seventh in the 50 butterfly. In fact, seven was a lucky number Saturday, as several Stingrays placed seventh in their events.

The boys 11-12 freestyle 200 relay team of Mitchell Lupi, Cayden Sharp, Trystan Barros and Trevor Brohard was also seventh. Chesten Browning was seventh in the 25-yard backstroke for 9- and 10-year-olds, and he helped his medley relay teammates, William Blea, Randall Lupi and Tony Onsae, place the same.

No Stingray boys placed in the top six in the 8-and-under, 9-and-10, 11-and-12 or 15-18 divisions. Los Lunas finished in 13th place among 15 teams with 546 points.

The Stingrays even had a seventh-place finisher on the girls side, as Veronica Dike was seventh in the 100 breaststroke.

Another Stingray girl to have a strong meet was Kiley McCleary. The Sundance veteran placed fifth in the 25 freestyle, fourth in the individual medley and sixth in the 25 butterfly in the 9-10 age group.

The girls' highest finish was by Cloe Baldanado, who was second in the 8-and-under butterfly. Shelby Bloom was third in the 9-10 group in the 25 backstroke, and Sophia Hampton was sixth in the 13-and-14 division's 50 butterfly.

"Overall, I think we did good," said Checkley. "My expectations were high for Saturday. We had a lot of personal bests."

The coach said the Stingrays might have had more 13-14 and 15-18 placers, but many of them missed the July 19 district meet, which is where individual qualifying for Sundance takes place. All relays were Saturday only.

Checkley, who swam at Rio Rancho High, said he knows the importance of keeping things fun for the Stingray swimmers, who numbered well over 100 this summer. "Keeping the sport fun is what kept me swimming," he said.