The Dalles Riverhawks traveled to Sam Barlow High School to compete against 6A teams from Sandy and Sam Barlow in a three-team dual last Thursday and both groups placed second overall in the meet.

Wrapping up a frenzied stretch of swimming with a dual meet and a daylong tournament, The Dalles girls claimed a victory and the boys were second Thursday in Portland, the girls placed second and the boys were third at Saturday’s White Buffalo Classic in Madras.

The boys and girls freestyle relay teams each posted wins, Lydia DiGennaro locked down a 50-meter freestyle triumph and The Dalles swimmers both secured third place finishes at the 16th annual Jay Rowan Invitational Meet Saturday in Bend.

With their first meet in the books, The Dalles swim team posted 18 top-3 finishes, including two wins by Kendall Webber, a victory from Lydia DiGennaro, and the girls freestyle relay quartet claimed top honors to help the girls squad to second place at this weekend’s River City Invitational in Scappoose.

It was a summer of great accomplishments, personal records, state qualifications and high team finishes for The Dalles Swim Team.

HOOD RIVER – Seniors McKenna Bailey and Jaeden Biehn feel it in their hearts that The Dalles swim team could be a thorn in the sides of the rest of the Intermountain Conference. The Riverhawks racked up 38 personal records, had a couple of swimmers just get edged out of wild card contention and the girls team placed third for their best finish in recent memory at the IMC District Championships held Friday at the Hood River Aquatic Center.

Kendall Webber picked up a win and a second in two individual races, and The Dalles girls swim team racked up 10 top-5 finishes for third place at last weekend’s Riverhawk Invitational held in Hood River. Added to the girls’ efforts, the short-handed boys group had six swimmers active with Will Evans, Bryce Harris and Grant Loughmiller guiding the team to 112 points for fourth place.

HOOD RIVER – If The Dalles swim team was going to give itself a chance to do some damage and have several athletes make the big jump to the state meet, all systems needed to be firing on all cylinders. Unfortunately, head coach Shea MacNab had to do some last-minute re-shuffling to his roster due to three varsity swimmers knocked out of action with illness issues and, because of that, two relays were scratched, and the group missed out on between four-to-six finals swims at last weekend’s Columbia River Conference District Swim Meet at the Hood River Aquatic Center in Hood River. Nonetheless, the Riverhawks posted 10 top-5 finishes, Natalie Varland had a second and a third, Will Evans chalked up fourth, and three relays placed third or better.

Natalie Varland and Peter Cardosi lit it up on the individual side, and both the boys’ and girls’ relay teams claimed top-5 status at the Riverhawk Invitational Meet Saturday from the Hood River Aquatic Center.