Othello Barracudas finish swim season at Champs meet
Bob Barrett photo - Daisy Borba swims the buggerfly during Tuesday's home meet against Toppenish.
Bob Barrett photo - Alex Martinez splashes his way to a third place finish in the boys 13-14 butterfly.
Bob Barrett photo - Noah Martinez swims the backstroke leg of the Boys 11-12 200 meter medley relay.
Bob Barrett photo - Martin Marroquin swims the freestyle during Tuesday's home meet against Toppenish.
It was a busy final week for the Othello Barracuda Swim Team. On Tuesday, the team hosted Toppenish, on Wednesday the Barracudas traveled to Prosser and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday they wrapped up their summer season at the Mid-Valley League Championships at Sunnyside.
The Barracudas fell just 42 points shy of swimming away with a team victory over the visiting Toppenish Tarpons in their last home meet of the year. The local swimmers held their own in the younger age groups, but Toppenish dominated the boys 11-12, the girls 15 and 16, and both the boys and girls 17-18 year old age groups to earn the team victory.
“The swimmers swam very well and to lose by only 42 points to Toppenish is really good,” Barracuda swim coach Amy Ross said during Wednesday morning’s practice.
The Tarpons arrived with about the same number of competitors as the home Barracudas, which is unusual for a travel squad in the Mid-Valley Swim League. The trip to Othello is the longest and most tiring trip the other league members undertake, so it is not unusual for away teams to arrive in Othello with only a small part of their entire roster. However, the Toppenish squad had both numbers and talent.
“They have a lot of swimmers who swim year around,” Ross said. “Toppenish is good.”
Othello’s squad size is about the same as previous years-about 60 total swimmers, but the Barracudas have 17 kids in the 8 and under age bracket, and this makes it tough for the local squad to compete on the away meets.
“Our away numbers on the traveling squad are so low because we have a lot of younger swimmers,” Ross said. “We get home at 11:30 or midnight and that is way past their bed time.”
Othello’s Danny Martinez took all five individual events to dominate the boys 15-16 year old age group. Swimming competitions are usually decided by hundreds of a second but Martinez won the breast stroke by two seconds, the backstroke by more than five seconds, and the individual medley by almost 10 seconds.
“Danny swam with the Channel Cats, so he was a year around swimmer last year,” Ross said.
The Barracudas did very well in the younger age groups.
In the boys 8U, Marcus Quezada won the butterfly and backstroke and placed third in the free style
In the girls 8U, Sami Shade claimed the fly, breast and freestyle events, and finished second in the backstroke.
In the boys 10U, Mason Perez touched first in the butterfly, Aram Borba won the breaststroke and backstroke, and Parker Freeman took the freestyle and the individual medley events.
First year swimmer, Hannah Butcher out swan the competition in the butterfly and backstroke, and placed third in the freestyle to lead the Barracuda girls in the 11-12 year old division.
Molly Jensen finished first in the butterfly, backstroke and freestyle to claim top honors in the girls 13-14 age group.
“I have been really proud of my 13-14 girls and the 9-10 girls,” Ross said. “They work really hard in practice and have been very consistent in the meets.”
The Prosser Piranhas simply swamped the visiting Barracudas on Wednesday, outscoring Othello 502-189. Although the Barracudas travel squad is not large enough to be competitive on a team basis on the away meets, individual Othello swimmers produce noteworthy results.
Alex Martinez won all five events-the fly, the breaststroke, the backstroke, the freestyle and the individual medley to dominate the 13-14 boys group.
Kayla Guzman finished first in the girls 15-16 fly and backstroke.
Danny Martinez captured a first-place finish in the breaststroke, and Elaina Parrish won the backstroke.
Mid-Valley League Championships
With some of the older girls at church camp and some of the older boys at scout camp, Othello traveled to the league championships at Sunnyside with just 12 swimmers.
The “Champs” swim meet is big-literally hundreds of kids from all seven teams (Selah, Sunnyside, Toppenish, Prosser, Naches, Grandview and Othello) competing in 74 different swimming events over a three-day period. The printed results take up 21 pages. Competition among the younger age groups involves 40-50 kids per event.
Team wise, Othello found the going difficult, finishing last in both the girls and boys total scores. However, individually, four Barracudas ending up placing. The top 8 preliminary placers compete in the “A” finals and the next 8 fastest kids swim in the “B” finals.
The Barracudas had one relay team and four individuals compete in the finals.
Kenzie Simpson, McKenzie Fultz, Chelsea Field and Molly Jensen finished 7th in the medley relay and 6th in the freestyle relay in the girls 13-14 age.
Hazel Ramirez placed 10th in the fly, 6th in the breast and 6th in the free in the 9-10 age.
Aram Borba finished 11th in the fly and 8th in the backstroke in the 9-10 boys group.
Molly Jensen touched 7th in the fly, 10th in the backstroke and 4th in the free in the girls 13-14 age.
Marcus Quezada swam to a 3rd place finish in the back and was 4th in the free in the boys 8U age group.
Results of Toppenish Tarpons at Othello Barracudas-July 27
Winning Othello Barracuda relay teams
Girls 10UMedley--Lillia Parrish, Sami Shade, Hazel Ramirez, Elena Zuniga-1st
Boys 10U-Medley -Luke Ross, Aram Borba, Marcus Quezada, Mason Perez-1st
Girls 13-14 Medley-Kenzie Simpson, Kenzie Fultz, Elaina Parrish, Chelsea Field-1st
Boys 15-18-Tomy Ramirez, Danny Martinez, Zach Hawley-Alex Martinez
Girls 10U freestyle-Lillia Parrish, Sami Shade, Hazel Ramirez, Madi Christensen-1st
Boys 10U-freestyle-Mason Perez, Parker Freeman, Aram Borba, Martin Marroquin-1st
Girls 8U-
Megan Butcher-3rd fly,2nd breast, 4th back, 3rd free.
Blake Schutte-3rd breast.
Boys 8U-
Marcus Quezada-1st fly, 1st back, 3rd free.
Tyce Christensen 2nd fly, 3rd back,4th free.
Luke Ross-1st breast, 4th back, 2nd free.
Elijah Martinez-1st free.
Girls 10U
Sami Shade-1st fly, 1st breast, 2nd back, 1st free,
Lillia Parrish 2nd fly, 4th breast, 1st back, 2nd free.
Hazel Ramirez-3rd fly, 3rd breast, 4th free, 2nd IM.
Madi Christensen-3rd free, 4th IM.
Boys 10U
Mason Perez-1st fly, 4th back, 2nd free, 3rd IM.
Aram Borba-2nd fly, 1st breast, 1st back, 3rd free, 2nd IM.
Martin Marroquin-3rd fly, 2nd breast, 3rd back, 4th free.
Parker Freeman-2nd back, 1st free, 1st IM.
Girls 11-12
Hannah Butcher-1st fly, 1st back, 3rd free.
Allie Wagner-4th fly, 3rd back, 1st free.
Daisy Borba-1st breast.
Celeste Depew-4th IM.
Boys 11-12
Cain Muro-3rd back,4th free, 3rd IM.
Girls 13-14
Molly Jensen-1st fly, 1st back, 1st free,
Elaina Parrish 2nd fly, 2nd back, 3rd free, 1st IM.
Chelsea Field-4th fly, 4th back, 3rd IM.
Kenzie Fultz-3rd breast.
Kailey Muro-4th breast.
Boys 13 14
Zach Hawley-2nd fly, 2nd breast, 3rd back, 2nd free, 3rd IM.
Alex Martinez-3rd fly, 2nd back, 3rd free, 2nd IM.
Girls 15-16
Kayla Guzman-4th fly, 4th free,
Goys 15-16
Danny Martinez-1st fly, 1st breast, 1st back, 1st free, 1st IM.
Tomy Ramirez-3rd fly, 3rd breast, 3rd back, 3rd IM.