It’s good to be able to make it count

It's not easy to follow swimming standings

By John Brewington

The South County Spotlight, Feb 16, 2010

Sports Editor John Brewington

Self-portrait / The Spotlight

ADVERTISEMENTS

It’s not that easy to follow team progress at an eight-team district swim meet. Even the coaches aren’t completely sure where they stand.

All the Lady Lions really knew at Saturday’s Northwest Oregon Conference district meet at Shute Park was that they needed to swim hard.

Last year, the St. Helens girls snuck up on Sherwood and surprised them. This year the St. Helens Lady Lions surprised themselves.

They knew it would be a close meet, but didn’t think they had enough firepower to pull off the repeat. So they just swam an incredible meet and let the scoring sort itself out.

Coach Bill Rash told me before the meet started that he thought Sherwood was just too strong for them to win. Assistant Coach Gina Harrington had thought a day earlier that they might be able to win the meet by one point. She wasn’t so sure on Saturday, or at least not letting on.

St. Helens starts off the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay–double points are nice. Kaitlyn Stroda follows with second place in the 200 individual medley. Chelsea Collson follows with a hoped-for win in the 50 free. Stroda comes back with a first in the 100 butterfly. Then it starts to get interesting. Amy Gainer turned in some gutsy swimming last year to help boost St. Helens. She is seeded fifth in the 100 free, but posts a terrific second place. Theresa Quennoz adds sixth-place points. Adena Fenrich and Alisha Haresnape maintain their seeds in the grueling 500 free.

1 | 2 Next Page >>