Chiefs have to scrap in CBBN
MOSES LAKE — Scrap.
That’s what Moses Lake will have to do in the Columbia Basin Big Nine this season, so says head coach Tony St. Onge: “It will be Wenatchee and then everybody else will scrap.”
St. Onge didn’t mince words about the Panthers — a team that won the CBBN league championship by a comfortable margin and finished third overall at the state meet.
“They will absolutely dominate our league this year,” he said.
St. Onge already has some perspective about how the league is shaped, but that perspective will crystallize today at the sprint pentathlon meet held at Moses Lake High School. All seven CBBN teams will be in attendance for a meet that will feature several races no longer than 50 meters.
However, it being an Olympic year and all, synchronized diving will be featured for the first time. What a way to usher in a new crop of Chiefs divers?
Heather Carbon, who finished sixth at the state meet in 2015, is now a member of the University of Idaho’s swim and dive team. At the moment, Moses Lake’s all new group of divers are working with assistant coach Brett Hammond to become varsity eligible — adding six dives to their repertoire.
“He’s working pretty hard with them and they’re making a lot of improvement,” St. Onge said.
Inexperienced divers in a first-time event should make for interesting theater.
“A new element; make it fun,” St. Onge said. “It will be interesting.”
More, Megan Washburn graduated and will swim for Whitworth University this season. The core group of returning swimmers includes Anna Fair, Shyanne Speed and Cora Dana.
That trio comprised three legs of a four-person 200 freestyle relay team that advanced to the consolation finals at last year’s state meet. Fair also made the consolation final in the 100 butterfly, taking 10th place.
“Those three have improved,” St. Onge said.
St. Onge also mentioned Janice Pryor, Lacy Johnson, Jaydyn Johnson-Pugh, Reagan Ewing, Brittany Richeson and Ashley Mabrishan as swimmers that are district-level. Pryor, Johnson, Johnson-Pugh and Ewing all swam for Moses Lake last season; Mabrishan transferred from Virginia; Richeson is an incoming freshman and Manta Ray Aquatics alum.
Today’s meet starts at 4 p.m.