Moses Lake has reason to celebrate

Manta Ray coach Tony Preston has never coached Moses Lake to a team title at the Moses Lake summer swim meet.

Now he has. In a swim meet that carried little weight and more fun, the Manta Rays stepped up and won the Summer Sizzlin' Invitational, Moses Lake's own summer meet with a team score of 594. The first time in five summers under Preston's control.

"It shows us going into a new direction," Preston said.

The team direction, support by the swimmers for each other and parent base has given Preston an outlook of change for the Manta Rays and everything pointed toward winning its own invitational as a part of the new direction swimming in Moses Lake has taken.

"I am starting to see more of a team in all aspects," Preston added. "It starts in practice and advances to meets. It is one big family is what I see."

About 175 swimmers showed up for the Summer Sizzlin' Invitational, down from years past where Moses Lake witnessed between 200 and 300 swimmers. But the idea behind the meet was more of a friendly competition.

With the Inland Empire Championships behind most of the swimmers present at the invitational, Preston said the numbers were expected to be down since teams on the west side of the state were swimming in their own championship.

Moses Lake, therefore, pushed for a "fun swim meet" that would attract teams to the meet next year, and with scheduling for next year, put the meet into a position of gearing up for the 2005 Inland Empire championships.

"All we got was compliments about how fun this meet was and how it was ran and that is what we were looking for," Preston said.

Nick Sutherland (43), Evan McFarland (75), Erica Anderson (69) and Stephanie McFarland (67) each took first in individual team points for their age groups.

Victoria Dalrymple (38) and Heidi Anderson (35) finished third and fourth in the 9/10 female individual scores, Megan Sutherland (21) finished fifth in the 11/12 female age group. Jeremy Grant (6) finished fourth in the 13/14 male group, Melanie Grant (42) finished third in the 15 and over female division and Brad Grant (29) finished fifth in the 15 and over male division.

"Everybody just about had best times," Preston said. "The kids swam well and they had fun and that is what I was hoping for."

The season ended on a note Moses Lake wasn't expecting and sends them into the winter season. The Summer Sizzlin' Invitational marks the end of the Manta Rays long-meet competition and will start the short-meet competition in October.