The boys and girls freestyle relay teams each posted wins, Lydia DiGennaro locked down a 50-meter freestyle triumph and The Dalles swimmers both secured third place finishes at the 16th annual Jay Rowan Invitational Meet Saturday in Bend.
Overall, the Riverhawks posted 17 top-5 outcomes, three of those were wins, four seconds, a third, four fourths and five fifths.
Out of the seven teams, the boys racked up 169 points, placing behind Redmond (344) and Pendleton (236), while the girls totaled 203 points to wrap up third place, with Bend (302) and Pendleton (276) atop the leaderboard.
“It was definitely very exciting knowing that more teams we competed with this weekend are in our district, and it was good to see how we compared to those other teams,” DiGennaro said.
In what was the race of the day, the boys 400-meter relay quartet of Bryce Harris, Michael Cole, Xander Kirby and Will Evans trailed Redmond by three seconds with Evans serving as the anchor.
Evans turned on the afterburners and eventually passed Redmond’s Connor Hall in the final stretch, giving The Dalles a first-place time of four minutes and 26.38 seconds, which bested Redmond by 3.33 seconds.
Not only did the boys come out ahead in a tough relay event, the girls squad, represented by Kendall Webber, Kennedy Abbas, Bree Webber and Lydia DiGennaro topped out in 2:05.52 to snag top honors in the 200-meter freestyle relay, finishing in front of Pendleton (2:08.95) by 3.43 seconds.
DiGennaro, a freshman, tacked on an individual first-place award in the 50-meter freestyle with a personal-record rally of 29.69 and she also placed second in the 100-meter butterfly with her 1:17.16.
“Personally, I’ve definitely loved the season so far and it’s exciting racing teams I’ve never raced before,” DiGennaro said. “I am definitely super-excited for districts and I believe our 200-freestyle relay could have a great shot at state this year. I’m looking forward to how the rest of the season turns out.”
Kendall Webber had another strong showing in her second meet of the winter with a pair of runner-up placings in the 400-meter freestyle (5:28.06) and the 200-meter freestyle (2:33.35), and Maisie Bandel-Ramirez added to the Lady Riverhawk point total with a third place finish in the 50-meter freestyle (32.21) and she had a fifth-place effort in the 100-meter freestyle (1:12.32).
Abbas placed fourth in the 100-meter backstroke (1:25.00) and sixth in the 200-meter individual medley (3:06.10), Paige Compton hit for fourth place in the 200-meter freestyle (2:56.55) and ninth in the 400-meter freestyle (6:28.65), and the group of Kendall and Bree Webber, Bandel-Ramirez and DiGennaro pushed ahead to secure fifth place in the 200-meter medley relay (2:33.71).
Hanna Rodriguez, Izabella Montesanti, Alyson Stewart and Frances Fuller teamed up to grab fifth place in the 400-meter freestyle relay (7:13.28), and in the 200-meter freestyle relay, Lydia Evans, Rodriguez, Montesanti and Compton timed out in ninth place (2:33.78).
Evans was 10th in the 200-meter individual medley (3:58.16) and 12th in the 100-meter backstroke (1:49.26), Bree Webber placed ninth in the 100-meter freestyle (1:20.39) and claimed 10th in the 50-meter freestyle (34.19), and Rodriguez turned in a final mark of 3:27.40 to get 13th in the 200-meter freestyle and she placed 16th in the 100-meter freestyle (1:27.62).
The Riverhawk boys tallied six top-5 outputs, led by Will Evans, who was the top scorer, helped by his second-place final rush of 2:21.21 in the 200-meter freestyle and he tacked on a fifth-place time in the 50-meter freestyle (27.82).
Bryce Harris placed fourth in the 100-meter freestyle (1:04.26), Jonathan Snodgrass fought to fifth in the 400-meter freestyle (6:56.96) and 10th in the 200-meter freestyle (3:15.77), and the 200-meter freestyle relay squad of Harris, Skyler Coburn, Michael Cole and Will Evans garnered fourth place (1:56.98).
Jacob Comini was eighth in the 200-meter freestyle (3:04.86) and 11th in the 100-meter backstroke (1:27.57, a personal record), Xander Kirby swam to eighth in the 200-meter individual medley (3:07.95) and was ninth in the 100-meter butterfly (1:25.43).
Coburn ended up ninth in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:35.28). Cole notched 10th in the 100-meter butterfly (1:28.24) and claimed 12th in the 50-meter freestyle (30.32).
William Hoover set a personal record in the 100-meter breaststroke (1:40.44) and Jose Reyes added a personal record of 1:46.11 in the 50-meter freestyle.
Hoover, Reyes, Drew Evans and Snodgrass placed seventh in the 400-meter freestyle relay (5:54.95), the foursome of Comini, Coburn, Kirby and Snodgrass had a time of 2:28.55 to score eighth place in the 200-meter medley relay, and the 200-meter freestyle relay group of Hoover, Jeffrey Davis, Drew Evans and Comini joined forces for a 2:40.98 to take ninth place.
“This was a great meet for us,” assistant coach Nate Timmons said of the Riverhawks performance. “It shows how hard the kids have worked. But, it also showed us where we have the opportunity to cut time. It will be exciting to see where the team goes, now that winter break is over, and everyone is healthy.”
The Dalles dives back in the water at 4 p.m. Thursday for a dual meet on the road with St. Helens High, and then heads to Madras for the White Buffalo Classic on Saturday.
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