Mavs perform well in swim prelims
Makhaela Parrish swims at the state swim preliminary competition for her chance to race Saturday in the finals.
REBECCA PETTINGILL/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
The Moses Lake Mavericks will swim in events Saturday at the 4A State Swim finals.
Aniston Dana qualified for finals in the 100-yard butterfly and 400-yard freestyle relay team events.
FEDERAL WAY - The Moses Lake Girls Swim Team completed the preliminaries Friday for the WIAA 4A State Swimming and Diving Competition.
“I think we had a good prelims,” said head coach Jason Hart. “I think tomorrow is going to be pretty awesome.”
In each event of the state preliminaries, the top 16 swimmers move on to finals on Saturday.
“We swam faster than we did in prelims at districts,” said Hart. “We had two best times today which was pretty awesome.”
Up first was the 200-yard medley relay. The Moses Lake Mavs team consisted of sophomore Julia Heaps, senior Aniston Dana, sophomore Kathryn DuVall and senior Lydia Jensen. The team took 11th place overall with a time of 1:55.87. They move on to finals on Saturday.
In the 200-yard freestyle Makhaela Parrish placed 5th with a time of 1:59.62 and qualified for Saturday’s finals.
The 200-yard individual medley saw Dana take 19th place with a time of 2:25.20, but she did not move on to finals.
Junior Issabelle Parrish placed 3rd in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.16 and moves on to finals.
“I’m just happy that we got where we needed to be for prelims so that we could go into finals strong and ready to race some fast girls here,” said Issabelle Parrish.
Dana was up on the block again for the 100-yard butterfly. She took 10th with a time of 1:00.10 and will compete in the finals.
The 100-yard freestyle saw Issabelle Parrish finish in 2nd place with a time of 52.67 and DuVall take 7th with a time of 56.62. Both will race Saturday.
The 500-yard freestyle saw an 8th-place finish by Makhaela Parrish with a time of 5:17.29. Freshman Bria Bodenman took 17th with a time of 5:33.74. Parrish moves on to the finals.
The 200-yard freestyle relay team consisted of Makhaela and Issabelle Parrish, Heaps and DuVall. The team took 6th with a time of 1:41.72. They will swim in the finals on Saturday.
The 100-yard backstroke featured Heaps who took 19th with a time of 1:04.74. She did not qualify for the finals.
DuVall placed 12th in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:10.80 and will swim in the finals.
The 400-yard freestyle relay team, composed of Makhaela and Issabelle Parrish, Heaps and Dana, finished in 5th place with a time of 3:43.90. They also move on to finals.
“It’s a really great atmosphere,” Issabelle Parrish said about the team this season. “All of our girls have been working so hard, everybody is so supportive of each other.”
Makhaela Parrish agreed and said how important it is.
“Team atmosphere is a very big thing,” she said. “Yeah, we all swim individually in our own events but if you have people there to support you and watch you and your teammates are cheering you on, then it makes you want to go faster.”
Hart said he is very proud of his team and how they have supported each other this season.
Just before finals on Saturday, former Moses Lake High School swim coach, the late Tony St. Onge, will be inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Aquatics Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
“We’re super excited that Tony is going to get inducted tomorrow,” Hart said. “And then we’re literally in the heat right after; the first heat of the meet. I just think that’s so cool. In the swimming world in Eastern Washington Tony St. Onge was legendary.”
Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.
