Lady Chiefs swim toward postseason

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake girls swimming and diving team wrapped up its regular season and is preparing for the postseason.

Head coach Lindy Tracey said the team is undefeated this year and is working hard to go all the way to state.

“We are trying to win it all,” Tracey said.

Swimming leagues are on Thursday and the Big 9 District Championships swimming preliminaries are Oct. 28-30, all at Moses Lake High School. The 2021 WIAA/Gesa Credit Union Girls State Swimming and Diving meet will be Nov. 12-13 at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

“We have a really talented group of young people working hard to achieve greatness this year,” said Tracey.

She said this is the first year the team had four athletes meet state qualifying times before the district meet. She explained normally it takes athletes until the district meet to get fast enough to meet those qualifying times. She also mentioned the times this year are pretty fast, so it is an even bigger accomplishment her swimmers are already at that level.

Some standout swimmers to keep an eye on, according to Tracey, include senior Laurel Knox, junior Makhaela Parrish, sophomore Issabelle Parrish and freshman Julia Heaps, who are all state qualifiers.

Knox has already qualified in four events, the 200- and 500-meter freestyles and the 200- and 500-meter freestyle relays.

Tracey said she attributes a lot of this year’s success to previous Moses Lake swimming coach Tony St. Onge. She said she did not have any top swimmers not come back after St. Onge’s death in April and the drive she sees in her swimmers were instilled by St. Onge in his coaching and legacy.

Tracey also mentioned she has a great group of swimming captains this year: Laurel Knox, Savanna Alamos and Lydia Jensen.

“My captains are rockstars,” Tracey said.