Mavs defeat West Valley and Sunnyside, reach 3-0

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake swimming team picked up its third win of the season last Thursday in a dual meet against West Valley (Yakima) and Sunnyside, earning a 112-49 win over the Rams and a 132-11 win over the Grizzlies. 

“We felt good going into it,” head coach Tony Preston said. “We got to swim a lot of events that we got to choose against those teams, so the girls were able to swim mostly what they wanted. I think we feel good about our training, and we’re in a spot right now where we’re working hard and looking forward to transitioning the rest of the year into more specific work.” 

The Mavericks claimed wins in each of the 12 events Thursday night; Julia Heaps won the 200-yard freestyle (2:08.83) and 100-yard freestyle (58.49), Alli Finnegan won the 200-yard individual medley (2:35.63), Dallie Cobb won the 50-yard freestyle (28.65) and 100-yard breaststroke (1:23.07), Kathryn DuVall won the 100-yard butterfly (1:15.01) and 100-yard backstroke (1:07.31) and Adelaide Jensen won the 500-yard freestyle (6:24.87). 

Moses Lake also won all three relays; the 200-yard medley (Finnegan, DuVall, Heaps and Jensen, 2:06.51), the 200-yard freestyle (Heaps, Finnegan, Jensen and DuVall, 1:50.61) and the 400-yard freestyle (Ariana Pichinevskiy, Cobb, Clara Larkin and Ellen Center, 4:38.67). 

“Looking through here, we had some good times,” Preston said.  

With Thursday’s win, Moses Lake improved to 3-0 in dual meets this season – the other win came against Wenatchee on Sept. 19, where the Mavericks pulled off a closely contested 94-83 win. 

A win in the 400-yard freestyle event, along with Heaps winning the 100-yard breaststroke and 50-yard freestyle, Jensen winning the 500-yard freestyle, Center winning the 100-yard butterfly and Finnegan winning the 200-yard individual medley helped the Mavericks rebound from Wenatchee winning two of the relays. 

“It was just stepping up and racing,” Preston said. “We put together what we felt was a strong lineup for that meet against a strong team. Lots of learning for our first dual meet of the season, where we really had to scatter people around in specific events ... we didn’t win all the close ones, but the girls were able to get up there and really put their best foot forward, which was really exciting to watch.” 

Now midway through the league schedule, Moses Lake takes road trips to Eastmont on Wednesday and to Davis on Thursday in a meet between the Mavericks, Pirates and Eisenhower. The regular season concludes with the Columbia Basin Big 9 Championships on Oct. 24, which Preston described as a “final tune-up" before the district meets at the end of the month. 

While there haven’t been any Mavericks that have qualified for state yet just on qualifying times, Preston said that Heaps is less than one second away from qualifying in the 50-yard freestyle. Along with Heaps, Preston noted several Moses Lake swimmers having standout seasons so far, including Jensen, DuVall, Cobb and Larkin. 

“It’s the girls training hard every time we get a chance to train and race,” Preston said of the strong start. “We’ve got some good, positive mentalities, got an amazing group of girls and their hard work really pays off. It shows in those results.” 

    Moses Lake’s Dallie Cobb won the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard breaststroke at last week’s meet against West Valley (Yakima) and Sunnyside.
  

    Moses Lake’s Adelaide Jensen competes in the 200-yard freestyle at Thursday’s league meet.