Tribe girls tight second in district

Only four points separate Scappoose and Taft in district swim competition

By John Brewington

The South County Spotlight, Feb 16, 2010

John Brewington / The Spotlight file photo

MEDLEY WINNER—Scappoose’s Rona Schmellenkamp won the 200 individual medley at last weekend’s district meet.

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The Scappoose Lady Indians came close to edging Taft on Saturday for the special swim district championship.

The squad was coming off a heady win in the Cowapa League Championships they hosted the previous week, but try as they might they weren’t able to knock Taft down.

Still the Scappoose girls qualified two relay teams and four individuals in eight events. The boys qualified one swimmer.

The meet was a tight one from the start. “It was quite the meet,” Scappoose Coach David Richmond said, “nail biting from beginning to end this year.”

Richmond said the goals for the girls had grown since the start of the season. They’d gone from wanting to finish in the upper half of district, to wanting to win the Cowapa League Championship, and then district.

“Coming into the meet, it was a virtual tie on paper with all three teams (Scappoose, Astoria and Taft) being within three points. We had the best district prelim day we’ve ever had with 45 entries into finals (girls and boys). Despite having a young team overall, they weren’t intimidated at all.”

The meet could have been a disaster from the start for Scappoose. Their 200 medley relay team was initially disqualified in prelims but eventually allowed back on a technicality after Richmond protested.

That boded well for the Tribe. The girls came back to win the event and that kept them in the hunt.

Richmond noted that the Lady Indians were down early in the race, and that Anna Ford “swam the leg of her career in the butterfly to keep us close against Taft” with one of the fastest fly swimmers in the state. Cassandra Miltich broke the 27-second barrier for the first time to give Scappoose the win.

“I have never had been left shaking or almost without my voice after any race before, let alone the first race of the day,” Richmond said. “The crowd was going crazy, our kids were as loud as possible, the atmosphere was amazing. It was a really great experience. We had parents tearing up in the stands after the race.”

Taft may have won the meet, when they were also successful in an appeal of a disqualification.

The meet came down to the last race, and Scappoose finished a very tight third to Astoria, while Taft won to sew up the team title.

“It was tough to swallow for all of us,” Richmond said, “but our girls could not have given anything more and we couldn’t have been prouder with the way they competed and the heart they showed to go toe to toe for two straight days.”

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