The Intermountain Conference Swim District held its championships at the Madras Aquatic Center on Saturday, Feb. 15. Swimmers from Hood River, The Dalles, Pendleton, Ridgeview and Redmond competed to vie for team titles, and the opportunity to win an event and punch their ticket to the State Swimming Championships.
The Eagle girls dominated the IMC and took home the win by over 100 points. The boys fell shy of bringing home the team trophy, by finishing second to the strong Redmond team by 10 points. But, that improved from last year’s third-place team finish.
HRV started out by winning five out of the six relays in the morning session. The girls 200-medley relay of Sarah Arpag, Celilo Brun, Madaket Greenleaf and Faith Ocheskey was the first event they won of the day.
Then their 200 freestyle relay of Abby McCormack, Chloe Bullock, Emma Titus, and Lillie Tomlinson won and punched their State ticket. The final 400 Free Relay of Ocheskey, Brun, Tomlinson and Arpag combined for that top finish as well.
The boys 200 and 400 freestyle relays consisted of Clayton Lee, Connor McElwee, David Hecksel and Luke Southall dominating the relays this year. They led from the start and never looked back.
The afternoon session began with a bang in the 200-freestyle. Greenleaf came from behind to win by a five-second best time, Titus grabbed second with a personal best and Jessica Galvez scored sixth with a five-second drop.
Bullock dropped five seconds also to dominate the consolation heat for seventh. Southall kept his cool and swam a personal best by over two seconds for the win, while Owen Summersett improved on his seed and placed fifth.
In the 200 individual medley Brun took second, Olivia Sumerfield placed fourth with a six-second drop while Campbell Keller and Neilly Kendall finished 10th and 11th respectively. Lee had a personal best and finished third, while Lucas Elliott showed the consolation heat who was boss by winning that heat by over four seconds, while Adam Burke and Angus Kellems contributed to team points by finishing 10th and 11th.
In the 50 freestyle Ocheskey, McCormack and Tomlinson went second, third and fourth, respectively, highlighting the strength of the team. For the boys, Hecksel was second, McElwee took third and Tristin Smith was ninth in this fast and furious event.
The Eagles showed their versatility and strength in the stroke events, by finishing first and second in the 100 butterfly for the girls and boys, with Arpag and Clayton winning this tough event, and Greenleaf and Hackett finishing second.
In the 1Â freestyle, Ocheskey was second, Lillie Tomlinson fourth and Abby Tomlinson eighth. All swam personal best times in the process.
Similar to the butterfly, the boys also finished second and fourth, with Southall and McElwee swimming personal best times
In the distance event, the grueling 500 freestyle, Sumerfield finished third and Bullock placed fifth for the girls. On the boy’s side Summersett was third and Burke with an amazing finish in fourth place overall.
In the final two stroke events the Eagles showed that they can not only swim fast freestyle, but they are fast in all events. Arpag continued her dominance by winning the 100 backstroke, Keller in fourth and Galvez in sixth.
Kendall swam fastest in finals than ever and won the consolation heat for seventh. Hecksel won the event for the boys in a personal best time, while Zayd Ziada placed ninth.
The excitement continued through the last event, the 100 breaststroke. The girls had four out of the six finalists.
McCormack grabbed first place, Brun was third and Titus grabbed fourth while Teddy Parkinson rounded out the final field by placing sixth.
On the boy’s side, Hackett was third, Elliot sixth and Henry Jones rounded out the consolation heat by finishing 12th.
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