Ted Walker swim meet attracts 11 teams to The Dalles

The Dalles swim team, guided by fourth-year summer league swim Coach Ann Goodman, had 43 swimmers competing in the event — a number of them swam well enough in their first meet this year to earn state-qualifying berths.

“I thought that I was just imagining how well the swimmers were doing,” said Goodman. “We had a clinic the previous weekend [June 14-15 in The Dalles] with very elite athletes who competed with Olympian Michael Phelps and they were instructing the kids. The kids learned how to dive better, and they were a body length ahead of swimmers at the beginning of their race. They improved in underwater swimming, as well. We had some kids who added some time, but most of our swimmers swam personal best times, which was fantastic, and a huge accomplishment for them.”

Boys swimmers who had solid performances while dropping time in their events and recording top finishes to qualify for the state meet included Mason Cramblett (age 13), Harlan Lawrence (age 6) and his brother Holten Lawrence (age 9), and Hunter Hall (age 9). Hall finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke (2 minutes, 13.68 seconds) to earn a state qualifying spot.

Harlan Lawrence took first place in the age 8-and-under 100 free (2:00.09) to qualify for the upcoming 10-and-under state meet in July. Harlan also qualified for state in the 50 breast. Harlan’s brother, Holten, took third in the 50 backstroke (44.17) and he was 14th in the 50 butterfly (54.12). Holten qualified for state in the back and the fly, and he lowered his time by 22 seconds and got second place in the 100 free (1:25.56).

“We started practice two weeks earlier this year than we have in other years and so that’s been a huge benefit for us,” said Goodman. “I attribute the time improvement that our kids have made to having more time in the pool and better techniques that they’ve learned.”

The Dalles swimmers will compete in their next event June 26-29 at the Howard Jones Open meet at the Mt. Hood Community College Aquatic Center in Gresham, followed by another meet July 5-6 at Pendleton.

The Hood River Valley swim team, guided by Coach Shelley Rawding, had 25 swimmers compete in the Ted Walker event. Hood River athletes started practice in April, and they’ve competed in many swim meets in the past two months and demonstrated their skills by swimming to a number of top finishes to qualify for state.

“We had a great start to the meet on Friday with everyone swimming really well and we had swimmers who qualified for state, including Rowan Hogue (age 11) who just had an awesome performance,” said Rawding, “We had three swimmers — Haven Stageberg, Felipe Mendez, and Lilian Chambers — who swam personal best times on Friday in their events.”

Hogue swam to a third-place finish in the boys 400 free. Hood River swimmer Adeline Thomas qualified for the state meet with a solid performance in two girls events. Hood River’s 6-year-old Izzy Mack swam to sixth place in the girls age 8-and-under 50 back. Hood River’s Finn Blakeslee, Lula Clark, and Sage Sneeby also recorded top-five finishes in their 100 free events.

The Hood River swim team will have a dual meet with The Dalles on June 30 at the Hood River Aquatic Center. Hood River and The Dalles swim teams will compete in the USA Swimming/Oregon Swimming Inc. Long Course State Championship 10-and-under meet July 12-13 in Albany.