Chiefs swim team places 12th at state
Moses Lake MLHS Chiefs Swim & Dive
FEDERAL WAY - Moses Lake turned in a strong performance at the 4A Washington State Boys Swim and Dive Championships at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way over the weekend.
The team was looking to place in the top 10, but just missed its goal as the Chiefs came in 12th out of 60 entrants, finishing with a team total 88 points.
"This was an extremely fast championship with many top qualifiers and a lot of depth in the meet," coach Tony St. Onge said. "We swam eight out of 10 best times for the season, either in prelims or finals, but needed a bit more improvement to have made it into the top 10 as a team."
Placing at the meet in the individual events were Brenden Eslick, Zach Johnston, Kaelan Connacher and Ben Breakey.
Eslick set a Moses Lake High School record with a time of 1:44.39 in the 200 freestyle, which earned him a third place finish and 16 points. He placed 10th in the 100 butterfly (52.80) and recorded 7 points. Johnston was 10th in the 200 freestyle finishing at 1:48.04, and 10th in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:52.73, and earned 7 points for each event.
Connacher placed 17th in the 200 individual medley (2:03.36), and 14th in the backstroke (55.53), to give him 3 points for the race. Breakey finished 21st in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.30.
In the 200 freestyle relay event it was the team of Connacher, Breakey, Johnston and Eslick placing sixth at 1:30.48, earning 26 team points. The four Chiefs placed eighth in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:20.02, which earned them 22 points. And in the final relay event of the finals, it was Breakey, Tristianne Randall, Nick Osborne and Troy Boorman finishing 17th. No time given.
"We were satisfied with our performance at state, but probably had expectations of being in the top 10," St. Onge said. "The experience lets us know the work that needs to be done to accomplish that feat. We have a young team that is headed the right direction, and if we keep the team together and work hard, we could get where we want to be next season."
Despite the lower than anticipated finish, the Chiefs had a great season compiling a 10-0 record to place first in the Big Nine Conference and winning the district championship.