Chiefs' swim & dive teams wrap busy weekend

MOSES LAKE — A tough triangular swim meet sent the Moses Lake High School Chiefs’ swim team to a 4-4 record as they dropped a 117-69 decision against Richland and a narrow 98-88 loss to Hanford.

“Richland placed third at state last year and appear to be another powerhouse this year as they are pretty much dominating the league,” Moses Lake coach Tony St. Onge said. “We planned our line-up for Hanford and it was a very close meet, coming down to the last relay.  We needed first and third on the last relay to win the meet but Hanford swam to first and third instead and came away with the victory. We had many lifetime best times but we would have needed best times out of  everyone to win this one.”

In their dual against Richland, Evan McFarland (100-yard breaststroke) was the only Chief to win one of the dozen events during the match-up.

“Richland is that dominant,” St. Onge said.

McFarland also took second in the 100-yard butterfly, while Reuben Huddleston took seconds in the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyle, and Kyle Reeder took second in the 500-yard freestyle to round out top swimming performances.

Divers Daniel Camacho and Braxton Ford took first and second in both duals.

Winners in the match-up against Hanford included, Huddleston in the 100-yard freestyle, Reeder in the 500-yard freestyle, and McFarland in the 100-yard butterfly.

Huddleston took second in the 50-yard freestyle, Reeder did the same in the 200-yard freestyle, and McFarland ended up runner-up in the 100-yard breastroke against Hanford.

“We found out what it is like to go up against two teams in which 100 percent of their varsity swimmers swim USA Swimming year-round,” St. Onge said. “Hopefully more of our boys swimmers will take advantage of that opportunity for next year.”

Ford captures diving competition

ELLENSBURG — Ford took home first place at the 11-dive state qualifying event in Ellensburg at Central Washington University’s pool on Friday.

Ford broke the Moses Lake record with 373 points and met the state qualifying standard according to St. Onge.

Camacho finished third with 327 points and also reached a state qualifying standard.

“They’ve been working hard all season long to try to qualify for state before districts and they were both able to do that,” St. Onge said. “They scored high enough with a tough enough degree of difficulty to make it to state. It’s taken a lot of effort and repetition to get that consistent. That was a big accomplishment for them out of the way.”