Eagles drop dual swim meets at Canby

It was the second successive season Canby has won the conference duals, though last week the girls team score was much closer than last season’s 114-55 margin.

The Eagle girls, eighth at the Class 5A state meet in 2023, were led by the 1-2 finish of Sophia Cross and Sophia Helleberg in the 50 freestyle, and Delaney Hackett in the 100 breaststroke. Cross won the 50 free race in 27.34 seconds to the 27.53 effort by her teammate. The two also joined Hackett and Michelle Graves on HRV’s first place 200 freestyle relay. The Eagles beat Canby 1 minute, 54.13 seconds to 1:59.41 in the relay race. Hackett won the breaststroke in 1:13.68.

Canby’s girls team was fifth in the 5A state meet a season ago. The Cougars are led this season by senior Kali Mull, who was fourth in the 200 free and 100 free at state in 2023, and returning state meet swimmers Amanda Yancey and Karina Sawatsky. Mull won the 200 and 100 free races in the HRV dual and also swam legs on Canby’s winning 200 medley and 400 free relays. Yancey won the 200 individual medley and Sawatsky won the 100 breaststroke against HRV.

HRV’s Cross and Helleberg were 2-3 behind Mull in the 100 free. Hackett and Maya Arndt were 2-3 in the 200 IM; and Graves was third in the 100 breaststroke.

The boys meet had some 2023 state meet swimmers going head-to-head. In the 200 freestyle, HRV’s Caiden Titus finished second to Canby’s Isaac Beck, 1:57.44 to 2:04.85. They competed at state a year ago in the same event. Titus, who was fifth at state in the 100 free, won that event against Canby in 53.2 seconds.

The other Eagle individual winner in the dual against Canby was Jackson Bullock, who battled Canby’s Ethan Beck in a good mid-season 50 free race. Bullock won 24.48 to 24.61.

The HRV boys 200 freestyle relay – Max Webster, Owen Sheppard, Felipe Mendez, and Titus – bettered its seed time of by seven seconds, winning in 1:42.70 to Canby’s 1:44.16.

Also of note was the 400 freestyle relay, which Canby boys won in 3:36.01 over HRV’s Bullock, Sheppard, Rohan Faber and Titus (3:14.14). Canby’s long relay team, intact from last season, swam just two seconds faster when it finished sixth over the same distance in the 2023 state meet. The Cougars pulled along HRV’s 400 relay to a time that would have beaten four of the 12 teams at state a year ago.