Times dropping as swim team nears districts
With one duel meet left before the Pacific Conference Districts meet, Feb. 14-15, McMinnville swim coach Jason Hafner said he’s starting to finalize the district lineups as the girls hope to snag another conference title and the boys have goals set for a top finish at the state meet.
“With a bye week (last week), we’ll be doing some swim offs in practice to earn some spots (on the relay teams),” Hafner said.
The Grizzlies will host Forest Grove Tuesday, “A last shot to get a varsity spot or event they’d like to swim at districts,” Hafner said. It will also be Senior Night for the soon-to-graduate swimmers.
Mac had a good tune-up for district on Saturday, Jan. 18 at the Skip Rumbaugh in Albany, competing against Corvallis, Roseburg, Sheldon and West Salem. Preliminary swims were in the morning and finals in the afternoon.
“It’s a long day. It’s hard day,” Hafner said. “The finals are always tough at that meet because they’re tired from all the swims they’ve had and not getting overnight rest (as they do at districts). It’s very difficult and they responded very well to that.”
Meet records were nearly broken by Grizzly swimmers.
The boys 200-yard medley relay team of Keller Shae, Ko Depweg, Jace Zemlicka and Michael Khoury were .19 seconds short of the meet record set in 2005, finishing in 1:38.98.
Depweg missed the meet record in the 100-yard breaststroke by .12 seconds, finishing in 58.16 — eight-hundreths of a second off his school record time in the event he swam earlier in the season.
The 100-breast featured several personal best times for the boys. Mitchell Ronning took third with a personal best time of 1:04.54; River Wessels won the B Finals in 1:12.08 and Reed Klosterman finished 10th with a personal best 1:16.94. Wessels also had a best swim in the 200-freestyle, finishing eight in 2:07.04.
“Overall, we had several personal bests at the meet,” Hafner said.
The boys won all three relays: Depweg, Samuel Wilkins, Camden Parsons and Koury took the 200-freestyle relay in 1:33.74, and Zemlicka, Keller, Ronning and Parsons won the 400-free relay in 2:21.15.
The guys also won a majority of the individual events.
Zemlicka won the 100-butterfly (2:02.26) and the 500-freestyle (4:47.93). Jackson Powell finished eighth in the 500-free with a personal best 5:56.87.
Parsons won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:02.26. The 100-yard backstroke was won by Shae in 54.65, and Zeke Russo finished eight with a personal best 5:56.87.
Several best times were broken by Grizzly girls, too: Cathryn Shea (28.01) and Beatrix Bent (30.71) in the 50-yard free; Lila Primozich in the 100-yard butterfly (1:12.25); Sierra Shaver (1:07.31) and Primozich (1:10.83) in the 100-yard free; and Siena Wizneroqicz in the 500-yard free (6:12.05).
“It was good experience for the girls, getting in a prelims/finals meet and seeing what they’ll need to do preparing for districts,” Hafner said. “They learned a lot from the meet.”
The Mac swimmers followed with duel meet wins over Glencoe on Thursday, Jan. 23.
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