Eagle girls win NWOC district swimming championship

“The girls, they’ve just been stable all year, and they really did a fantastic job pulling together,” Coach Shelly Rawding said.

With the anticipated bad weather in the forecast, NWOC teams learned at the start of last week that the meet would be moved ahead two days. The short preparation time was a big adjustment for the swimmers.

Rawding said: “It was hard. They were definitely nervous on Monday, because all of a sudden, instead of having a week to prepare, they only had two days. So, that was stressful for the swimmers.

“What we normally do is just try to keep the energy level high but the stress level down and I think we did a good job of that. The kids did a great job of just pulling it together and swimming the swim meet they knew they needed to.”

What they needed – and had – was superior depth to score 432 points, to the 376 of runner-up and last year’s champion, Canby High. The HRV boys were fourth in their meet, trailing Canby, Hillsboro and La Salle Prep (see related story this issue).

The Hood River girls won two individual races and two relays. Senior Sophia Cross won the 200-yard freestyle and 100-yard freestyle. The relay wins came in the 200 freestyle (Nyxey Heredia, Ava Giordano, Delaney Hackett and Cross); and the 400 freestyle (Heredia, Sophie Helleberg, Maya Arndt and Cross).

Those swimmers automatically qualified for the OSAA’s state championships Feb. 21-22 in Beaverton. First-place winners in each individual and relay event at Oregon’s four Class 5A district meets automatically qualified. Remaining open lanes at state were filled by the next fastest times from district meet finals (held through Feb. 15), up to 12 participants.

Hood River had more swimmers qualify for state once results of the three other 5A district meets were complete last weekend. The Eagles’ 200 medley relay of Helleberg, Kylin Elliott, Hackett, and Giordano finished second at district in 2:07.7. That time was fast enough to earn the team a spot in the state meet.

Also qualifying in the 200 freestyle was Arndt, who was third at district in 2:13.83. Skyla Hollowell finished third at district and earned a wild card spot at state in the 100 butterfly with her time of 1:10.29. Hollowell, the district runner-up in the 100 breaststroke (1:18.99), also earned a state berth in that event, as did third-place finisher and teammate Elliott (1:19.3). Helleberg garnered the other wild card berth for the HRV girls with her second-place district finish in the 100 backstroke (1:09.3).

Hood River had 14 different swimmers earn 26 individual placings at district and earn team points, attesting to its team depth. “That’s the reason we won is because we have really good numbers and we had multiple relays score points,” Rawding said.

Cross scored 40 points for HRV with her two wins (2:07.97 in the 200 free; 57.75, 100 free). Hollowell, also a senior, scored 33 points for the Eagles. Cross was honored – along with Canby’s Quincey Taliaferro and La Salle’s Kayla Chapman, also double winners – as the girls meet’s high point scorers.

Also placing and scoring points for HRV were: Heredia, fourth, 200 free and sixth, 500 free; Isa Arndt, 14^th 200 free; Elliott, fifth 200 IM; Sandoval, seventh, 200 IM and eighth, 100 back; Isabel Ulland, eighth, 200 IM and seventh, 100 breaststroke; Clementine VanDeHey, 12^th, 200 IM and 12^th, 100 butterfly; Helleberg, sixth, 50 free; Giordano, seventh, 50 free, and fourth, 100 free; Trudy Sanders, 15^th, 50 free, and 12^th, 100 free; Hackett, fifth, 100 butterfly and fifth, 100 backstroke; Tess Marsden, 11th, 100 free; Maya Arndt, fifth, 500 free.

Eagle boys fourth at district swim meet

Junior Felipe Mendez won an individual championship, leading the Hood River Valley boys swim team at the Feb. 12 Northwest Oregon Conference district championships.

Mendez won the 100-yard breaststroke in 1 minute, 3.13 seconds, helping the Eagles finish fourth as a team. Canby won with 370 points, Hillsboro was second with 337, La Salle Prep was third at 318 and HRV had 266.

The finals, at Parkrose High School, were held Feb. 12 – moved up from the scheduled Feb. 14-15 meet – because of expected (and subsequently realized) adverse winter weather in Portland. Hood River’s girls team used its superior depth to place first ahead of Canby (see related story this issue).

The Hood River boys qualified all three of their district placing relay teams for state. Senior Max Webster anchored the 200-yard medley relay to second place behind La Salle Prep. The HRV team of Francisco Solberg, Mendez, Liam McGeeney and senior Max Webster swam 1:52.3, which earned it a spot in the state prelims. In the district meet’s final event, HRV was third in the 400-yard freestyle relay, as McGeeney, Logan Griffith, Charlie Marcotte, and Kane Wagner swam 3:59.08. The time also was fast enough to earn a wild card berth to state.

Solberg, Wagner, Mendez, and Webster teamed up to finish third in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:40.41 and also earned a state qualifying berth.

The state meet is Feb. 21-22 at Tualatin Hills Aquatics Center in Beaverton. Class 5A prelims begin at 9 a.m. Feb. 21; finals are Feb. 22 starting at 8:15 a.m.

Hood River, which placed athletes in eight of nine individual events, had one third-place finisher in Solberg, who swam the 50-yard freestyle in 25.03 seconds. Mendez was fourth in the 200-yard individual medley (2:13.78); and Wagner was fourth in the 100-yard freestyle (58.13).

Also placing (top 16 overall of a team’s top four) and scoring points at district were: Carson Tokstad (13^th, 200 free); Marcotte (eighth, 100 butterfly; ninth, 200 IM); McGeeney (fifth, 50 free; sixth 100 butterfly); Webster (sixth, 50 free; sixth, 100 backstroke); Solberg (seventh, 100 backstroke); Wagner (seventh, 50 free); and Griffith (16^th, 100 free).