Moses Lake performs well at state meet

FEDERAL WAY - The Moses Lake Chiefs girls swim and dive team returned home from the state swim meet last weekend with their best performances of the season.

While the Chiefs swam to a tie with the Wilson High School Rams for 41st place, Moses Lake head swim coach Tony St. Onge said his team performed at their best.

"We had a season-best time in almost every event during the preliminaries," he said. "(We) then had 100 percent improvement in the finals."

Moses Lake senior swimmer Megan Schuh swam the best race of her Chiefs career in the 500-yard freestyle event.

Schuh qualified for the finals in the event and swam a Moses Lake-record 5:18.6 for a fifth place consolation finish. With the fifth place finish, Schuh finished 13th overall in the event. Moses Lake swimmer Courtney Schwiesow swam to a 21st overall finish in the 500-yard freestyle event.

In addition to her record-breaking swim in the 500-yard freestyle event, Schuh swam a season-best 2:16.7 in the 200-yard individual medley event.

She headed into the state event as the 27th overall seed and finished with a 19th place finish at the state meet.

The Moses Lake swim team performed well despite the tough state competition, St. Onge said.

"This was the fastest meet in state history," he said. "There were six state records set in the twelve events. Almost every time the Chiefs swam (at the state meet) this year would have (qualified for the finals) in the past, but not quite this year."

The Moses Lake 200-yard medley relay team also swam to a season-best performance at the state meet.

Hannah Grigg, Cari Cortez, Elaura Grant and Schuh entered the state meet with a 1:59.4 time and a 27th overall seed in the event.

The four girls improved their season-best time to 1:57.9 and earned an 18th overall finish at the state meet.

Moses Lake divers Heather Devine and Sammy Hendrickson had solid state performances for the Chiefs, St. Onge said.

Devine finished 21st overall while Hendrickson finished 23rd overall in the diving competition.

The Chiefs set season-best marks in nearly every swimming event and St. Onge was inspired by his team.

"It was a very positive meet performance for the Chiefs' swimmers and divers," he said. "For the seniors it was a good way to finish their high school careers, and for the underclassmen it is something to build upon for next year."

St. Onge said he hopes the experience will push his team to train in the offseason.

"It was a positive meet for the Columbia Basin swimmers and will hopefully challenge our local swimmers to train even harder for next year."