Ted Walker meet attracts many Gorge swimmers

“The kids did great, and we had some brand new swimmers who are competing in their first season and some of them just learned how to swim after starting practice just two weeks ago,” said Goodwin. “The younger ones really stepped up to the plate. Our age 10 and under kids really carried us and they scored as many points as the older kids.

“They just learned how to swim in relays and they’re learning the ropes of how the meet goes and they’re learning how to race. It’s a completely new experience for many of the kids and their parents, as well.”

Some of the swimmers were athletes from The Dalles and Hood River Valley high schools, who competed in the OSAA Class 5A state meet Feb. 18 in Beaverton. Lydia DiGennaro and Carter Randall of The Dalles Riverhawks and HRV senior Kaitaro Hawkins and 2022 Hood River graduate Sara Arpag also competed in the meet. All four of the swimmers competed at the 5A state meet.

DiGennaro swam in many events and also had a strong performance in the girls 400-meter individual medley with a time of 6:37.27.

The Dalles swimmers will compete in their next event June 24-26 at the Prineville Invitational Meet.

Sam Ford, 11, had numerous top-five finishes in boys events, including a fourth place in the 50-meter breaststroke at 46.52 seconds. Ford had some other top finishes, which helped him qualify for the Oregon Swimming Inc. age 11 and over state championship meet July 21-24 at the Mt. Hood Community College Aquatic Center in Gresham.

“Sam will have a full slate of events and he’ll have to pick which ones to swim in because you can only enter six events and he’ll swim in his best ones,” said Goodwin. “Sam scored a total of 39 points in this meet, and he was one of our top scorers along with Noah Anslinger (age 8) who scored 49 points and he was our highest scoring individual swimmer. I think Lydia might also have qualified for the 11 and over state meet, as well.”

Anslinger took first place in the boys 50-meter freestyle with a time of 59.17 seconds.

The Hood River Valley swim team, guided by Coach MJ Caswell, had 32 swimmers and many of them set personal bests. William Frost, 12, had a strong effort all three days while recording a number of top-three finishes, including a second place in the boys 200-meter IM at 2:53.32.

“I’m really proud of our kids because many of them had some personal best times and we had a lot of new swimmers who were in either their first or second swim meet ever,” said Caswell. “They’re working on building their skills and they get to hang out with their friends and cheer for them, so I was really happy with the team spirit they showed. People rallied around and cheered for each other. We had a lot of really good swims with kids dropping their times and I’m very, very pleased with how this meet went.

“The wind was a bit challenging, but we have to just swim with whatever the conditions are. I was really impressed with everybody’s resilience. It’s a really good ,happy experience for everyone. We always come to this meet, and we love it here. It’s a good chance to swim in a long-course meet close to home, which is often difficult to find, because there’s not many long-course pools in the state.”

Hawkins swam in numerous events, taking first place in the boys 400 individual medley Friday with a time of 6:28.01 to earn nine points for his Hood River squad.

Arpag combined with teammates Thea Smith, Michelle Graves, and Delaney Hackett to finish fourth in heat 3 of the girls 200-meter freestyle relay in 2:16.17. Arpag is an assistant coach on the Hood River swim team.

The Hood River swim team will enter its next event July 2-3 in Camas, Wash. It marked Hood River’s second meet of the season. The squad competed May 20-22 in Bend.