Lady Chiefs bound for districts with high hopes

Moses Lake takes 12 competitors to districts

MOSES LAKE — The Lady Chiefs swim team got their last minute instructions from coach Tony St. Onge Thursday.

"We've been pushing all season long," said St. Onge. "We're resting this week."

An average practice this season has included swimming three miles, or so, during daily practices. This week's practices have been cut down to just a mile to help prime the team for the meet this weekend. The team has also been working on relaxation and visualization techniques for the first 20 minutes of each practice to gear up for the meet.

"I've tried to emphasize a positive team and mental attitude," said St. Onge. In a similar spirit of team unity, the Lady Chiefs had a team "psych up" dinner Thursday night and stopped this morning for a team breakfast.

Moses Lake, who finished fifth in league this year, will be taking ten swimmers and two divers to districts.

"Wenatchee is the team to beat," said St. Onge. "They went 9-0 this season."

Among those competing are the 200 Freestyle relay team of Stephanie McFarland, Cari Cortez, Angela Noteboom and Ashley McKean. However, for this team of four, districts is merely a formality.

"That team has already qualified for state," said St. Onge.

For the other competitors to qualify for state this weekend, they need to make or better the minimum state qualifying time or place in the top three in their events.

St. Onge speculated that McFarland, Cortez and Marielle McKean would qualify for state in their individual events this weekend. He also said that this was the first year in a long while for a Moses Lake diver to have the degree of difficulty required to move on to the state competition.

"Amanda Hochstatter has been diving well for us all season," said St. Onge.

Moses Lake's other district qualifiers are: Annalee Bassett, Hannah Grigg, Riley Hourigan, Ande Payne, Kylie Secrist and Megan Price.