The Dalles High Riverhawk and the Hood River Valley High Eagle swim teams competed in a Feb. 3 tune-up event at the Hood River Aquatics Center in preparation for Saturday’s Class 5A Intermountain Conference District meet in Hood River.
The Eagles, guided by fourth-year Coach Shelly Rawding, had a dominating performance by their girls squad while recording ten event wins for a score of 135 points, while the Riverhawks notched one win and scored 50 points. Eagle boys swimmers posted seven wins and scored 113 points and the Riverhawks notched four wins and scored 58 points in the dual meet.
“Everyone did really well, and I thought our team did great in the last dual meet before districts,” said Rawding. “We had a lot of swimmers that were doing some personal-best times and we won a lot of events. We had a 1-2-3 finish in the girls 200 free, so that was very fun for our team.”
Eagle girls swimmers were led by four-time event winners Emma Titus and senior Sarah Arpag, along with three-time winners Nora Sandoval and Michelle Graves. Titus swam to first place in the 200-meter freestyle with a PR time (2:21.20) and the 100 free with a PR (1:03.23). Sandoval took second in the 200 (2:23.36) and teammate Avery Walker was third (2:57.82).
Titus combined with teammates Arpag, Graves and Sandoval to take first in the 200-free relay (2:03.56). The quartet of Titus, Sandoval, Arpag and Abby Tomlinson swam to first place in the 400 free relay (4:33.74).
“This season has been pretty good; this is a really fun team, and everybody has been swimming great,” said Titus, who won the IMC district championship in the 200 freestyle during the COVID-shortened spring season in June last year in Hood River. “I’ve been dropping a lot of times in just about every meet this year. I’m really excited because state is like a whole new experience and so is districts. These meets are intense and it’s like a whole different level of competition.”
Arpag swam to first place in the 200 individual medley (2:36.99) and the 100 butterfly (1:08.96). Sandoval won the 400 free (5:01.97) and Graves took first place in the 100 breaststroke (1:27.35).
Eagle swimmers who also won girls events included Maya Arndt and freshman Sophia Cross. Arndt swam to first in the 100 backstroke (1:23.42) and she combined with Cross, Graves and Tomlinson to win the 200 IM relay (2:25.08).
The Eagle boys squad was led by three-time winner Gavin Hackett and two-time winners Lucas Elliot and Jackson Bullock. Hackett took first place in the 100 back (1:13.83) and the 100 fly (1:09.51). Hackett combined with Elliot, Kaitaro Hawkins and Angus Kellems to win the 200 medley relay (2:12.79).
Hackett is the only Eagle boys swimmer who qualified for the last state meet in 2020 and he’s expected to qualify for state on Saturday. Bullock has also been one of the Eagles’ top swimmers and he’ll also be a state-qualifying contender in the 200 free and 500 free.
Bullock swam to individual event wins in the 200 free (2:23.57) and the 400 free (5:21.08). Elliot swam to first place in the 200 IM (2:44.29). HRV’s Elijah Adams also swam to victory in the 100 breaststroke (1:22.96).
The Riverhawk boys squad was led by four-time winner Michael Cole and two-time winners Skyler Coburn, Carter Randall and Wesley Parker. Cole swam to first place with a personal record time in the 100 free (1:00.92), he won the 50 free (26.74) and he combined with Coburn, Randall, and Parker to win the 400 free relay (4:18.18).
“We’ve had lots of practices canceled because of COVID and weather-related issues too this year, but we’ve all been swimming super great,” said Cole. “We had to work extra hard because of all the missed practices, but we’ve all been swimming great at the meets.”
Coburn, Randall, Parker, and Cole also combined to swim to another victory in the 200 free relay (1:51.90). Coburn had a strong second-place finish in the 200 free (2:27.52) and he took third in the 100 breaststroke (1:28.29).
“It wasn’t my best meet of the season, and I didn’t get any PRs, but it wasn’t too bad,” said Coburn, a junior who is hoping to qualify for state for the first time. “I was glad to get second in the 200 free and third in the breaststroke. We took first in our two relays, so that was really nice to win against Hood River. I’m really hoping that we’ll qualify for state in our relays and I think we probably have a good shot at it.”
The Riverhawks, guided by Coach Shea Macnab and assistant Nate Timmons, recorded one girls event win by Lydia DiGennaro, who swam to first place in the 50 free with a season-best time of 30.22 seconds.
“All of the kids have been working really hard and they definitely met our expectations,” said Timmons, a fourth-year assistant coach. “What it came down to is that all the hard work that they’ve done in practice really showed in their strong performance in the meet. We had a good amount of personal records, which was really impressive, especially since we had our hardest practice of the year on Wednesday. They came out and swam faster, which is a really good sign for us.”
DiGennaro had an impressive effort in also recording runner-up event finishes in the 100 free in which she had a personal-record time (1:07.72). DiGennaro combined with Kennedy Abbas, and seniors Hannah Haight and Kendall Webber for second in the 400-free relay (4:52.23).
“I think the meet went really well and it was probably my best meet of the season,” said DeGennaro, a junior who qualified for the 2020 state meet in the 50 free and 100 free and the 200 free relay. “We did really good in our relays, so it was a pretty good meet.”
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