Mavs swim team finds success in districts

MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Mavericks swim team competed in the Big 9 District 5 tournament, with the preliminary round and diving events taking place Thursday and the finals taking place Saturday. The results from the finals qualified two Mavs for the state tournamen,t with around six in the wildcard. 

“We put ourselves in the spot where we wanted to swim good on Saturday, so that was job number one. It wasn’t the times, it was making sure that we were ready to step up and compete on Saturday,” said Mavs head coach Tony Preston. 

During Thursday’s meet in the prelims, Preston said the Mavs’ times were not exactly where they wanted to be, but they all placed well and allowed the whole team to qualify for the finals on Saturday. 

Going into Saturday’s meet, all of the Mavs' mindsets were on improving their times from Thursday, and that is what they did. As a team, the Mavs finished third in the district tournament. 

Bria Bodenman secured her spot in the state tournament Saturday, earning second in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:03.22 and first in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:33.31. Dallie Cobb will enter the state tournament after earning first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 26.36 and third in the 100-yard Freestyle with 0:58.13. 

During the diving event on Thursday, Mavs diver Mia Thompson took fourth with a score of 200.75, Lexie Gruber took fifth with a score of 135.65 and Chloe Saxton earned 186.8 but was disqualified from the final score. 

The Mavs team of Kimball Roylance, Ava Robinson, Ellen Center and Clara Larkin finished fourth in the 200-yard Medley Relay with a time of 2:18.81. In the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, Cobb, Taylor McKay, Paysyn Torrey and Bodenman took third with 1:53.22. The Mavs team also took third in the 400-yard Freestyle Relay with Cobb, Center, Torrey and Bodenman swimming for 4:11.48. 

There was another individual success for the Mavs in the tournament, with Torrey earning third in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:31.9 and fifth in the 100-yard Breaststroke with a time of 1:19.28. McKay finished fifth in the 200-yard freestyle with 2:23.87 and seventh in the 50-yard freestyle. 

Center earned sixth in the 100-yard Butterfly with 1:14.48 and third in the 500-yard Freestyle with 6:22.59. Kimball Roylance earned eighth in the 100-yard Freestyle with 1:05.45 and seventh in the 100-yard Backstroke with 1:15.26. 

While the top two places from the district tournament were guaranteed to go to state, those who were in the top eight could still qualify for a wildcard at the state meet, depending on the results of other teams competing in their district tournaments this weekend, said Preston. 

He said, moving into the next couple of weeks leading up to the state tournament, the Mavs will be working on staying strong as they get a break this weekend. Bodenman and Cobb will both be hitting the pool hard this week and working on the little things that need to be addressed before state. Those waiting in the wildcard will also continue to work hard throughout the week. 

“Getting third place was good; we just had a lot of good swims in our district,” said Preston. 

The Mavs will be heading to the WIAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Nov. 14-15 with the prelims beginning at 7:30 a.m. at King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.  

    Mavs senior Bria Bodenman looks back following her competing in the 200-yard Freestyle in the preliminary round on Thursday. Bodenman qualified for state by earning second in the 200-yard Freestyle and first in the 500-yard Freestyle on Saturday.
  

    Olivia Alamos from the Mavs competing in the 100-yard Butterfly on Thursday where she finished with a time of 1:47.54.
  

    The Mavs dive team stands together following their competition on Thursday.