Othello Barracudas win last home meet of swim season

OTHELLO — The long road trip from Othello to any of the other swimming venues in the Mid-Valley League is a mixed blessing for the Barracudas.

The other clubs in the league – Selah, Toppenish, Grandview, Sunnyside, Naches and Prosser – are all fairly close to each other. But when Yakima area teams have to travel to Othello, it is a different matter.

The long trip is hard on the younger kids particularly and, therefore, teams that travel to Othello usually show up with a much smaller contingent, which helps the Othello team to be competitive in its home meets.

Of course, the blessing becomes a curse when Othello has to travel because it is a long trip to every other town and the Barracudas always show up with a smaller group at away meets than at home events.

“We have some new swimmers. So our traveling team is small,” Othello coach Amy Ross said. “We have to travel the longest of everyone to every away meet.”

Every team travels with a smaller contingent, and that helps Othello compete with those teams that simply bury the Barracudas with superior numbers at their home meets.

Last Tuesday was an example of this. The Barracudas outscored the visiting Prosser Piranhas 326-296 to earn a victory in their last home meet of the season. Earlier in the season at Prosser, the Piranhas swamped the Barracudas 561-194.

The Barracudas not only had the numbers, they also had some outstanding individual performances in virtually every age group.

Aram Borba finished first in the freestyle and backstroke and second in the breaststroke in the boys 8-and-under age group.

Sami Shade finished second in the butterfly and freestyle and third in the backstroke while Magali Marroquin was first in the freestyle, second in the individual medley and third in the butterfly and breaststroke in the girls 10-and-under age group.

Cain Muro took top honors in the boys 10-and-under group with first-place finishes in the freestyle and backstroke and second place awards in the individual medley and butterfly.

Elaina Parrish finished first in butterfly, backstroke and freestyle in the girls 11-12 age group.

Terrill and Dallin Freeman dominated the boys 11-12 age group. Terrill won the butterfly, backstroke, freestyle and individual medley and finished second to Dallin in the breaststroke.

Dallin also earned a second place in the individual medley and third place awards in the butterfly and backstroke.

Taylor Taff finished first in the butterfly and backstroke and second in the freestyle in the girls 13-14 age group.

Daniel Martinez won the breaststroke and finished second in the butterfly, backstroke, freestyle and individual medley in the boys 13-14 age group.