TD swimmers hit top levels at Bend Open

Solana Doty, 5, secured fourth place in her 25-yard backstroke (43.46) and tallied sixth place in the 25-yard freestyle after a 36.91 to score points for The Dalles.

Lydia DiGennaro, 13, participated in six events overall and notched a pair of top-10 times, her best mark coming in the 50-yard freestyle (26.80), and she added a 59.54 to claim ninth place in the 100-yard freestyle.

She also cut down 3.99 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke with a final tally of 1:11.78.

“Once again, Lydia dropped her time for the 50-yard freestyle, which is again an ‘A’ time,” TD head coach Scott McKay said. “She also finally broke the one-minute barrier for the 100-yard freestyle with another ‘A’ time, so those were two highlights from this meet.”

On the boys’ side, Thatcher Dray, 8, placed within the top 11 in five of his six events, putting up his best efforts in the 100 individual medley in 2:05.32 to lock down eighth place, an 18.86-second improvement.

Dray turned in a 26.09 to claim eighth place in the 25-yard freestyle and placed ninth in the 25-yard freestyle (20.86) and 25-yard breastroke (27.26).

Samuel Ford, 8, scored team points in his six events, but had his best outcome in the 25-yard freestyle, where he scored eighth place (20.70).

Ford was 10th in the 50-yard freestyle (47.03) and 100-yard individual medley (2:25.19) and he secured 11th place in the 25-yard butterfly (30.42).

“Once again, the 10 and under boys did a great job,” McKay said. “Thatcher scored the most points for the team at 46 points and Samuel was right behind him scoring 41 points for the team.”

Of the eight relay swims, the boys and girls totaled four top-5 placings, led by the eight-years-old and under 100-yard medley relay team of Salma Ladkani, Solana Doty, Heather Camp and Maili Doty, who racked up an impressive mark of 2:38.34 for second place.

“The medley relay team scored a second and that was fantastic,” McKay said. “Each of the four swimmers swim a different stroke and they all have to be legal, which is not easy for these young swimmers. But, they did it with Salma swimming backstroke, Solana swimming breaststroke, Heather doing the butterfly and Maili finishing up the freestyle leg.”

The 200-yard medley relay group of Amaryllis Marlinga, Rosie Wilson, Kaiya Doty and Rylee Camp combined for a 3:24.13 to claim fourth place, and Kendall Webber, Maisie Bandel-Ramirez, DiGennaro and Kennedy Abbas hit the 13-years-old and older 200-yard medley relay race in 2:16.18 to garner eighth place.

Webber, Abbas, Bandel-Ramirez and DiGennaro tacked on a mark of 1:57.23 in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

The male 10-years-old and under 200-yard medley relay squad of Dylan Phetteplace, Maverick Varland, Sawyer Dray and Jack Dewey placed fourth with their 3:39.31 and placing fifth in the 12-years-old and under 200-yard medley relay with a rally of 3:08.04 was Wesley Parker, Colin Webber, Carter Randall and Henry Perez.

Several swimmers made ‘B’ times for the first time in their respective events with Coburn hitting his marks in his 50-yard freestyle swim (28.83).

Loughmiller hit a ‘B’ time in the 100-yard freestyle (1:25.60) and Thatcher Dray made a ‘B’ time in the 25-yard breaststroke (27.26), and Maverick Varland in the 100-yard freestyle (1:23.86) and the individual medley (1:43.27).

DiGennaro had ‘B’ times in the 50-yard freestyle (26.80), 100-yard freestyle (59.54) and 100-yard backstroke (1:11.87) to lead the girls’ team.

Kendall Webber scored ‘B’ times in the 100-yard freestyle (1:04.20) and 500-yard freestyle (6:17.46), Kaiya Doty posted ‘B’ times in the 100-yard freestyle (1:29.27), 50-yard breastroke (49.88) and 100-yard individual medley (1:40.81), and Bandel-Ramirez had her ‘B’ mark of 34.30 in the 50-yard freestyle.

Holden Diehl, 7, was 13th in the 25-yard backstroke (29.11) and 25-yard breastroke (30.31), Luke Padgett, 8, was 14th in the 25-yard butterfly (45.92) and Danner Varland, 7, ended up with a time of 25.07 for 15th place in the 25-yard freestyle.

Rhett Loughmiller, 9, placed 19th in the 100-yard freestyle (1:25.60), Skyler Coburn, 13, was 20th in the 50-yard backstroke (38.05) and 50-yard breastroke (41.21) and William Evans, 16, had a mark of 26.70 for 21st place in the 50-yard freestyle.

Bree Webber, 16, posted a time of 35.79 in the 50-yard backstroke, Rosalina Wilson, 10, tallied a 55.46 in the 50-yard breastroke, Marin Alvarez, 17, touched the wall in 7:10.84 in the 50-yard freestyle, Arwen Dorzab, 9, went for a 1:38.01 in the 50-yard breastroke, and in the 50-yard breastroke, Lillian Dupuis, 12, put up a 43.83.

Last Wednesday, McKay hosted TDST Awards Night with winners announced in three categories for Most Valuable Swimmer, 110-Percent Effort and Most Improved for the Gold, Silver, Bronze and Fishies groups.

In the Fishies division, Luke Padgett notched Most Valuable Swimmer, Anastasia Mitsky was the 110-Percent Effort winner and Jack Dewey took home Most Improved.

Ford secured Most Valuable Swimmer for the Bronze class, Jenna McCartney had her name called as the 110-Percent Effort recipient and both Thatcher and Sawyer Dray were Most Improved.

Maverick Varland and Kaiya Doty notched the Silver division’s Most Valuable Swimmer honors, Amaryllis Marlinga picked up 110-Percent Effort and Blair Miller was the Most Improved.

In the Gold division, DiGennaro reeled off Most Valuable Swimmer for the Gold team, Carter Randall grabbed the 110-Percent Effort award and Lillian Dupuis claimed the Most Improved award for the Gold group.