Blackhawks finish fourth at districts

CLARKSTON – Buoyed by a pair of state-qualifying performances, the Cheney High School boys swimming team swam to a fourth-place finish overall at district competition between the Great Northern League and Central Washington Athletic Conference last Friday.

The Blackhawks finished with 196 points, 21 back of Prosser High School in third place. Pullman claimed the district title at the Asotin County Aquatic Center with 423 points, 81 points ahead of second-place Selah.

Senior Trae Babcock captured a pair of district titles with state-meet qualifying times. Babcock swam to victory in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.71 seconds and took first in the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.61, 1.29 seconds faster than the state-qualifying mark of 50.90.

Senior Matthew Norman also punched his ticket for state competition Feb. 21-22 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, placing fourth with state-qualifying times in the 100 butterfly (56.44) and the 500 freestyle (5:08.62).

Cheney’s only other top-eight, “A Final” finish came from sophomore Luke Hurd, who placed eighth in the 100 backstroke in 1:09.33. Sophomore Aaron Brown won the B Final in the same event, placing ninth overall and bringing in nine points for the Blackhawks.

Senior Walker Ross was 10th in the 500 and 12th in the 200 freestyle races. Sophomore Ben Schreiber was 11th in the 100 breaststroke and 13th in the 100 butterfly while senior Jared Geschke placed 11th in the 200 individual medley and 13th in the breaststroke. Senior Seth Wilcox was 12th in the breaststroke.

Juniors Zach Reynolds and Alex Rose placed 12th and 13th in the backstroke with Gabe Gerber 14th in the 50 and 16th in the 100 freestyle events. Hurd finished 16th in the 200 freestyle.

Cheney placed fifth in the 400-yard freestyle relay and seventh in the 200 medley relay.

The Blackhawks received additional accolades in Clarkston as Babcock was named Swimmer of the Meet and head coach Jennifer Hochwalt was named the district’s Coach of the Year. Hochwalt received the same award in leading the Cheney girls team to a district title this fall and was honored with the Coach of the Year award at state competition in November.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].