Garrett, Polito lead Manta Rays at regional swim meet
SPOKANE — The Moses Lake Manta Rays swim team finished 14th in the A Division and 15th in the B Division at the Inland Empire Swimming A/B Championships at Witter Pool last weekend.
The A/B Championships included 17 teams from around the Northwest and a total of 486 swimmers. The Tri-City Channel Cats led A Division teams with 1,309.5 points and also won the B Division title with 486.5 points.
The Manta Rays compiled 26.5 points to tie for 14th in the A Division with Eastern Washington Recreation Association, and scored 50.5 points in the B Division to beat out squads from Ellensburg and Wenatchee.
The meet marked the second-to-last Manta Rays' event of the summer, with a select few taking part in the Western Zone Championships, Aug. 6-11 in Farmington, N.M. The team begins fall practices in early September.
Individual highlights from Spokane are listed below by age group.
Girls 8-under
Natalie Polito finished up a strong summer by shattering Marielle McKean's old team record in the 50-meter freestyle. Polito's time of 37.52 seconds was more than two seconds ahead of her nearest competitor in the A Division. She also finished third in the 50-meter butterfly (50.15), helping her place sixth among A Division swimmers with 15 points.
Girls 9-10
Jalen Garza had the Manta Rays' top overall performance, finishing 11th among B Division swimmers with 14 points. She notched top-10 finishes in four events.
Garza's best finish came in the 100 backstroke, where she took second in 1 minute, 33.87 seconds. That time was just 1.17 seconds out of first. She was third in the 100 freestyle (1:32.97), tied for fifth in the 50 backstroke (45.38) and eighth in the 50 breaststroke (56.22).
Joelle Garrett also had a nice outing, placing 20th in the B Division with 7.5 points. Garrett had five top-10 times.
Garrett's best finish was in the 100 breaststroke, where she placed fourth in 2:00.89. She was seventh in the 50 freestyle (42.44) and ninth in both the 100 butterfly (2:22.08) and 200 individual medley (3:55.42).
Moses Lake's Hailey Tolliver had three top-10 finishes to her credit. Swimming in the B Division, Tolliver took fifth in the 100 butterfly (2:14.84), seventh in the 50 backstroke (49.30) and ninth in the 50 freestyle (43.31).
Girls 11-12
Amber Garrett was the Manta Rays' top overall placer in Spokane, taking fifth among B Division swimmers with 21 points.
Garrett dominated a pair of events, winning the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly. In the backstroke, her time of 1:33.04 was 2.21 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor. Garrett bettered that in the butterfly, finishing 2.54 seconds in front of the runner-up at 1:29.45.
Garrett completed her impressive weekend with a second-place mark of 1:33.87 in the 100 backstroke and a sixth-place mark of 3:22.62 in the 200 individual medley.
Girls 15-over
Megan Schuh's two top-10 times helped her place 15th among A Division swimmers with eight points.
Schuh was fourth in the 200 backstroke (2:43.99) and 10th in the 100 backstroke (1:19.79). She also narrowly missed top-10 times in the 200 breaststroke (11th in 3:14.12) and the 100 breaststroke (14th in 1:32.40).
11-12 boys
Dalton Tolliver competed in four B Division events, with his time of 42.58 good for seventh in the 50-meter freestyle.
Tolliver also finished 16th in the 50 backstroke (54.81), 16th in the 100 freestyle (1:46.88) and 17th in the 50 butterfly (1:07.02).