A large combined contingent of 16 (nine girls, seven boys) Hood River Valley High Eagle swimmers participated in the 5A state championships at Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) in Gresham. The highlight was that five members of Coach Kelly Cunningham’s Columbia River Conference champion girls swim team recorded top finishes in Friday’s preliminaries to earn a position in Saturday’s finals.
HRV senior Sarah Gottschalk, juniors Allie Burke, Yasmeen Ziada and Courtney Castaneda and freshman Celilo Brun all advanced to finals where they swam hard and earned medals for their outstanding performances.
Gottschalk was a three-time medalist as she brought home a silver medal in the girls 100 backstroke finals (58.18 seconds). Gottschalk, a German foreign exchange student, won a bronze in the 50 freestyle finals (24.43). Gottschalk recorded runner-up finishes in both events in Friday’s prelims with a 24.78 in the 50 and a 58.79 in the backstroke. It marked the first time in her career that Gottschalk broke the one-minute barrier.
Gottschalk, a four-time state qualifier, and teammates Brun, Ziada and Castaneda helped lead the Eagles to fifth place in both the 200 medley relay final (1:58.59) and the 400 free relay final (3:54.19). The Eagles lowered their times from both of Friday’s prelims. HRV clocked season-best times of 1:59.09 in the 200 and 3:54.28 in the 400.
Burke is a three-time state qualifier who was also competing in the meet for a third-straight year at MHCC. She swam in three events: the 500 freestyle, 200 freestyle and the 200 relay. Burke set a personal best (PB) in the 500 freestyle, swimming to sixth in Friday’s prelims with a time of 5:32.55. She repeated her strong swimming performance 24 hours later in Saturday’s finals with another PB of 5:31.95 for a sixth-place medal. Burke took tenth in the 200 prelims with a PB of 2:06.75.
Ziada, Brun and Castaneda were also three-time state qualifiers. Ziada took 11th in the 100 butterfly prelim with a PB time of 1:04.49. Brun swam to 11th place while swimming to a PB time in the 200 IM prelim (2:28.34), just ahead of Castaneda in 12th (2:31.91).
The nine-member HRV girls squad, including alternates Alea McCartly, Amber Kennedy, Mackenzie Booth and Lillie Tomlinson, took sixth place with 18 points out of the 12-team meet. Bend won the team title with 97 points.
The Eagle boys squad, including alternates Tyson Miller, Clayton Lee and Pen Blair, had a strong performance in the prelims, despite not advancing to the finals. HRV senior Philip Hecksel swam to seventh place in the 200 free prelim with a PB time of 1:50.78. Hecksel was less than half a second behind sixth-place finals qualifier Christian Bergin of Summit, who earned the medal-qualifying position with a time of 1:50.31. Hecksel also swam to 10th place in the 100 butterfly prelim with a PB time of 56.13.
The Eagle quartet of Hecksel, his brother David, senior Andrew Rinella and freshman Adam Burke swam to a 10th-place finish in the 400 free relay prelim (3:37.16). David Hecksel took 12th in the 100 breaststroke prelim (1:10.27).
For seniors Philip Hecksel, Miller, Rinella, Gottschalk and Booth, last weekend’s state meet marked their final swim competition for HRV.
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