The Hood River Aquatic Center was jam packed over the weekend with 12 teams of high school swimmers from across the state in-house for the annual The Dalles Invitational. At mid-season, the meet is a great way for teams to test their athletes against those from both near and far, giving coaches a good idea of how their teams will fare at the rapidly approaching district and state championships.
If results from the weekend are any indication, Hood River Valley High School will measure up quite well. HRV’s varsity girls team won the meet outright, with 405 points – 85 points ahead of the next best team, CRC rival Pendleton. Pendleton got the best of the varsity boys field with 394 points, followed by the HRV boys in second with 324.
Highlighting individual performances were first-place finishes by Dhani Freeland (200 freestyle, 100 freestyle), Kylie Webb (200 IM, 100 breaststroke), Carlos Galvez (500 freestyle) and the girls 400 freestyle relay team of Webb, Freeland, Caitlyn Fick and Yasmeen Ziada.
The Eagles continue their schedule with an away meet Saturday at Crescent Valley, a home meet Jan. 24 and a final meet Jan. 31 at Baker before hosting the Columbia River Conference championships Feb. 14.
Top five TD Invite finishes are as follows:
HRV girls:
Top five teams: 1st Hood River, 405; 2nd Pendleton, 320; 3rd La Grande 304; 4th The Dalles, 202; 5th Madras, 192
200 medley relay: 3rd, Courtney Castaneda, Kylie Webb, Katherine McElderry and Caitlyn Fick
Commented