Dhani Freeland, Kylie Webb, and two Hood River Valley High School girls relay teams earned finals appearances and podium finishes over the weekend at the OSAA 5A state swimming championships at Mt. Hood Community College. With these finishes earning team points toward overall titles, the HRV girls ended up fourth behind Bend (1st, 74 points), Summit (2nd, 72 points) and Mountain View (3rd, 42 points) and just ahead of Sandy (25 points) to round out the top five.
The HRV boys sent swimmers to compete in eight events, but none made it out of preliminary rounds Friday to qualify for Saturday’s finale.
Freeland, a junior, had the best individual results for the Eagles as she blazed her way through the 100 meter freestyle prelims to qualify for the top-six finals the following day, where she finished second in a time of 52.72, just off the pace of first-place finisher Maddy Kelly of Lebanon, who touched the wall at 52.46. Freeland also claimed third in the 100 backstroke with a mark of 59.76.
Webb, a senior, finished fourth in the 200 IM to earn a podium finish in her final meet as an Eagle.
Two of the three HRV girls relay teams also advanced past the prelims and placed in the top five in the finals. The 400 freestyle relay team of Webb, Freeland, Courtney Castaneda and Caitlyn Fick posted a time of 3:44.99, good enough for third place (Summit was first in 3:34.70) and the 200 medley relay team of Freeland, Webb, Fick and Yasmeen Ziada finished fourth overall in 1:55.15 (Bend was first in 1:50.11).
Although the HRV boys put forth a commendable effort, none progressed past the first day of competition. The 200 medley relay team of David Walker, Stan Ocheskey, Carlos Galvez and Trey Schilling was eighth in the prelims and the same four comprised the 400 freestyle relay team, which finished 11th in the prelims but did not earn a top-six position for the finals.
HRV swimming at state championships
Girls team:
1st Bend (74), 2nd Summit (72), 3rd Mountain View (42), 4th Hood River (26), 5th Sandy (25)
200 medley relay prelim: 8th, 1:47.43, David Walker, Stan Ocheskey, Carlos Galvez, Trey Schilling; 50 freestyle prelim: Trey Schilling, 8th, 23.34; 100 freestyle prelims: Stan Ocheskey, 8th, 51.24; 200 freestyle relay prelims: 9th, 1:36.21, Trey Schilling, Andrew Rinella, Carlos Galvez and Stan Ocheskey; 100 backstroke prelims: David Walker, 9th, 58.75; 200 IM prelim: David Walker, 10th, 2:10.93; 400 freestyle relay prelims: 11th, 3:36.80, Trey Schilling, David Walker, Carlos Galvez and Stan Ocheskey; 100 butterfly prelims: Carlos Galvez, 12th, 58.27
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