By JOHN McCALLUM
Editor
Results were mixed for the Cheney girls' swimming team in their first week of action. The Blackhawks opened with a dual-meet 107-46-loss to visiting Pullman on Tuesday, but had only 11 of 22 swimmers competing.
“Most didn't have enough practices to compete because they started after school began,” Cheney head coach Jennifer Hochwalt said Tuesday.
That didn't stop the Blackhawks from qualifying six swimmers for 2A Eastern Washington district meet competition, and one swimmer achieving a qualifying time for state. While no times were available, Hochwalt said freshmen Jenna Riley captured first in the 200-yard individual medley and second in the 100 breaststroke, the latter bettering the state-cut time of 1 minute, 13.99 seconds.
Junior Heather Spall was second in both the 100 backstroke and 100 butterfly, going faster than last year's time of 1:09 in the latter and coming close to the state cut mark of 1:05.99. Hochwalt said the Blackhawks had “lots of third, fourth, fifth and sixth places” against the always tough and deep Greyhounds.
Saturday, Cheney took 13 swimmers to Ellensburg for the Central Washington Pentathlon at Central Washington University's pool. The pentathlon allows swimmers to compete in up to five events in only 100- and 200-yard distances.
Hochwalt said she saw great improvement in all swimmers, even in the short period since Tuesday's Pullman meet. Riley had the best performance overall, placing eighth among all swimmers from 2A/3A/4A schools.
Hochwalt also said Cheney had 13 swimmers qualify for district events, including five new additional swimmers than those who qualified against Pullman. Hochwalt added she expects more to make the district cut as swimmers improve on technical aspects of their events and their endurance.
Cheney has one meet this week, Thursday's dual competition in Clarkston against the Bantams.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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