Cheney senior Liam Hewey charges towards the final turn of the 100-yard breaststroke during the Blackhawks final home meet last Thursday against Grandview and Prosser.
The Cheney High boys swimming team wrapped up its regular season schedule by going 2-1 in Great Northern League/Central Washington Athletic Conference action last week.
The Blackhawks downed the visiting Grandview Greyhounds and Prosser Mustangs, 102-31 and 86-56, last Thursday in the home finale at Eastern Washington University's pool, but finished the season with a 126-32 loss at unbeaten Pullman Saturday.
Walker Ross led the Blackhawks in scoring against the Greyhounds, finishing second in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 1 minute, 13.37 seconds. Mitch Johnson was third in the backstroke while Zack Jongeward was third in the 50 freestyle for Cheney's only top-three individual finishes.
The 200 medley relay team of Johnson, Caleb Wilcox, Steven Freeman and Jongeward was third in 2:06.96 while the 400 freestyle team of Matthew Norman, Cameron Villalobos, Freeman and Jongeward was also third in 4:01.93.
Norman, Jongeward and Ross notched first-place finishes Thursday against Prosser. Jongeward won the 50 free in 25.60 while Norman took the 100 free in 59.85 and Ross the 500 free in 6:34.36.
Ross was also second in the 200 free in 2:17.96 while Erik Foien was second in the 200 individual medley in 2:37.63. Jared Adams was second in the 100 backstroke in 1:17.40 and Liam Hewey topped off the individual events with a second-place finish in the 100 breaststroke in 1:21.95.
All three Cheney relay teams finished second against Prosser and Grandview with the exception of the 200 medley team, which won its heat against the Greyhounds. Individually against Grandview, Ross and Foien finished first in the 200 free and 200 IM, Jongeward was second in the 50 free as was Norman in the 100 free. All other results remained the same as against Prosser.
Cheney finished the regular season at 6-4 in league action, finishing third behind Selah and league champion Pullman.
Blackhawks head coach Jennifer Hochwalt is happy with where her swimmers are right now at the regular season's end and looking forward to district competition Feb. 2-3 at Gibb Pool at Washington State University. She used Thursday's meet to put swimmers in new events to give them a shot at qualifying for districts, and did the same Saturday at Pullman.
Currently 16 Cheney swimmers have qualified for the meet, as have four Medical Lake co-op swimmers and the lone East Valley swimmer. The two weeks before competition gives the Blackhawks a chance at a bit of rest competitively, but more opportunities to get ready for a run at a top-three finish and qualification for state.
"Couple more days of hard work and then we'll fine tune our speed and get ready to race fast," Hochwalt said.
The state 2A/3A/4A championships take place Feb. 16-17 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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