HRV’s swim team practicing different strokes at the Hood River Aquatic Center Dec. 6.
Submitted photoHood River Valley’s girls and boys varsity swim team launched their season Thursday, Dec. 5 at Gresham’s meet. Last season the boys placed 12th in state while the girls finished eighth and won the Intermountain Conference title.
Shelley Rawding, head coach for both teams, said the team improved throughout the season and displayed their skill during state last year.
“It was really fun to watch the kids grow over the season. They set some high goals for themselves, made it to the state meet and had a lot of fun in the process. It was as a great experience,” Rawding said. “Last year’s state championship was really fun for me because it’s the first year that I was the head coach for Hood River Valley Eagles’ swim team.”
Before HRV, Rawding coached the Hood River Valley Swim Team since 2000 and other teams in Washington.
These past few weeks Rawding has been focusing on swimming technique, speed and swimmer’s capabilities during practice.
“We work a lot on body position and how to do legal turns. There’s certain nuances you have to know for the rules,” Rawding said. “We believe in a lot of speed. So, I don’t have our swimmers do long boring things. We spend a lot of time on working on speed and working our system, so we get used to what it feels like to race.”
One thing Rawding said she is looking forward to this season is the new location for the Intermountain Conference championship meet. For the past 20 years, the district title meet has been held in Hood River at the Hood River Aquatic Center.
This year it will be held in Madras at the Madras Aquatic Center.
“I think it will make the distract meet seem more special having it at an away pool,” Rawding said. “Most all our swim meets in January are at our home pool. So being able to travel somewhere will, I think, give it a little bit of a different flavor and I think the kids will rise to the occasion.”
Swimmers to look out for this season include seniors Celilo Brun, Faith Ocheskey, Lillie Tomlinson, Adam Burke, Clayton Lee, David Hecksel, Connor McElwee and Pen Paphanchith, juniors Hazel Farr, Madaket Greenleaf, Campbell Keller, Neilly Kendall, Abby McCormack, Teddy Parkinson, Olivia Sumerfield, Owen Somersett and Luke Southall, sophomores Sarah Arpag, Jessica Galvez and Tristin Smith and freshman Emma Titus and Gavin Hackett.
In their next meet the Eagles will face David Douglas and Gresham in Portland at the David Douglas Pool Thursday, Dec. 12 at 4 p.m.
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