Cheney girls swim team wins twice at Richland meet

RICHLAND — The Cheney girls swim team came away with a pair of wins after competition in a multi-team dual meet in Richland on Sept. 21.

But the Blackhawk girls certainly know how much they need to improve before state in November.

Cheney topped both Chiawana (84-37) and Pasco (84-40) but was overwhelmed by by Mercer Island (134-37).

“Mercer Island is the best team in the state,” head coach Jennifer Hochwalt wrote in an email.

Notable finishes on the afternoon for Cheney and included a pair of third-place finishes for Jezelle Schmidt at 1 minute, 10.10 seconds in the 100-meter backstroke and Medical Lake’s Jess Richards in the 200 freestyle (2:16.11).

Cheney’s 200 freestyle relay team consisting of Acacia O’Dell, Sage Schaefer, Bethany Bleam and Madi Bauman also took home a third in a time of 1:51.21.

“The girls had a good meet individually but it was a little bit rough as a team since one-third of the girls were either out sick or on college trips,” Hochwalt noted.

Co-op team member Ava Swigart from Lewis and Clark won her 200-freetsyle in 2:00.04 with Medical Lake’s Jess Richards third in a time of 2:16.11.

Swigart also won the 500 free in 5:16.32 and was a member of the victorious 200-free relay team with Elishka Janout, Anjali Richards and Anya Atkinson at 1:44.72. Janout was runner-up in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:12.00.

Cheney hosts Clarkston in a league dual, Sept. 26 at 3 p.m. at the Eastern Washington University Aquatics Center in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise complex.