Othello swim club wraps up season at Sunnyside

The Othello 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 forty points to Toppenish is really good,” Barracuda swim coach Amy Ross said.

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 team. 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 seventeen kids in the eight 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 won 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 over five seconds, and the individual medley by almost ten seconds.

“Danny swam with the Channel Cats so he was a year around swimmer last year,” Ross said.

The Barracudas did very well in 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 won the fly, breast and freestyle and finished second in the backstroke.

In the boys 10u, Mason Perez won the butterfly, Aram Borba won the breaststroke and backstroke and Parker Freeman won the freestyle and the individual medley. .

First-year swimmer Hannah Butcher won the butterfly and backstroke and placed third in the freestyle to lead the Barracuda girls in the 11-12 year old division.

Molly Jensen won 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 Barracudas travel to Prosser on Wednesday and will finish their season at the League Championships. The individual medley competition begins at 6:30 p.m. on Friday.

With some of the older girls at church camp and some of the older boys at scout camp, the team expectations and hopes at the year ending league championships are somewhat limited.

For coach Ross, the main goal is the same as it has been all summer-to limit disqualifications and to make sure the swimmers' skills are good.

Results of Toppenish Tarpons at Othello Barracudas

Relays-200 Meter Medley Relay-Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle

• Girls 10u Medley- 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

200 Meter freestyle relay-each swims 50 yards freestyle

• Girls 10u - Lillia Parrish, Sami Shade, Hazel Ramirez, Madi Christensen-1st
• Boys 10u - 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,

Boys 15-16

• Danny Martinez - 1st fly, 1st breast, 1st back, 1st free, 1st IM.
• Tomy Ramirez - 3rd fly, 3rd breast, 3rd back, 3rd IM.