Mac girls swim to first conference dual meet win

McMinnville swim coach Jason Hafner used last week’s dual meet against Liberty as a chance to have place swimmers in events where they do not often compete.

“It gives them a little break from their main events, and also it helps work some different muscles,” Hafner said. “It’s really good for their overall conditioning.”

The boys team outscored the Falcons 117 to 51, while the girls picked up their first conference meet victory, 109-59.

Hafner organized the relay teams to ensure good competition at the meet, even if it was against teammates. Two boys relay teams were within tenths-of-a-second of each other in both the 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard free-style.

“It’s really important for us, any opportunity we have, to set it up so they have close races to prepare them for the big meets,” Hafner said, noting Saturday practices are set up similarly with racers going off the blocks against one another.

Several swimmers recorded personal best times at the meet.

On the girls side, seniors Siena Wiznerowicz and Beatrix Bent swam personal bests in the 200-yard individual medley, touching in at 2:43.50 and 2:43.91, respectively, for second and third place. Bria Zemlicka also had a second place finish with a personal best time of 1:14.72 in the 100-yard butterfly (1:14.72).

Freshman Cathryn Shea recorded a personal best in the 50-yard freestyle (27.64), beating out sophomore team-mates Emma Khoury (28.30) and Josephine McPhillips (28.80).

Hafner also noted a strong meet by sophomore Gianella Contreras-Rodriguez, who took first in both the 200-yard freestyle (2:24.17) and the 100-yard breaststroke (1:22.80).

On the boys side, sophomore Ty Coulter took second with a personal best time of 24.39, as did Olin Hamilton in the 100-yard butterfly (1:02.08). Ko Depweg did the same in the 500-yard free, knocking 17 seconds off his person-al best with a time of 5:43.21.

“He hadn’t swam that one in a while,” Hafner said.

The Grizzlies faced Century Thursday evening in a dual meet, and will be in Corvallis Saturday to compete in the Skip Rumbaugh, with Corvallis, Roseburg, Sheldon and West Salem.

Mac will then have two more dual meets before the Pacific Conference Districts on Feb. 14-15. The Grizzly boys are heavily favored to win that, and Hafner said he’s seeing the steady improvement from the girls team needed to compete for the district title.

“The year-round swimmers, as the season has gone, their times in the meets have been dropping,” Hafner said. “The swimmers that are just in high school competition, we’re seeing steady improvement with them. That’s what we’re looking for. The ones that swam last year, they might not have hit their lifetime best that they hit districts last year, but they’re better than they were at this point last year. So that’s a good sign heading toward districts.”