Mavs have strong showing ahead of districts
· Yahoo Sports
Oct. 29—MOSES LAKE — The Mose Lake Mavericks swim team had one more opportunity to get geared up for their district meet last Thursday as they hosted the Big 9 League Invitational. Mavs Head Coach Tony Preston said this provided a great opportunity to get the girls some extra experience and recovery time ahead of districts.
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"We had a lot of people in their off-events, just tuning up to see where we're at," said Preston. "We had some illness going around; you never want to have your team sick, but better a week before the championship meet than the week of the championship meet."
The Mavs had a strong showing in relays throughout the meet starting with the 200-Medley where Andi Hardebeck, Sarah Heaps, Kimball Roylance and Ava Robinson took fourth (2:19.50) and Mya Hempel, Clara Quilter, Ally Hindman and Eve Williams took ninth (2:39.84).
Moses Lake saw four teams place top 10 in the 200-Freestyle relay with Paysyn Torrey, Sarah Heaps, Sydney Stevens and Taylor McKay in first (1:56.85), Ava Robinson, Lexie Gruber, Clara Quilter and Ava Center in fourth (2:08.37), Brooklyn Nollette, Eve Williams, Mia Thompson and Ashlynn Aronsohn in seventh (2:24.34) and Serena Ranson, Olivia Alamos, Dylan Fowkes and Mya Hempel in ninth (2:33.57).
In the 400-Free relay, three Mavs teams saw top 10 finishes with Torrey, Stevens, Hardebeck and McKay in second (4:14.72), Roylance, Gruber, Ally Hindman, and Ava Center in fifth (4:45.84) and Becca Rettkowski, Annabelle Dacy, Savannah Vazquez and Gabriella Echeagaray in ninth (6:41.13)
Individual performances were solid for Moses Lake as well. The 200-Free saw Taylor McKay take third (2:24.60), Ava Robinson take fifth (2:27.15) and Mya Hempel take eighth (2:55.89).
Paysyn Torrey had a strong performance in the 200-Individual Medley as she took second (2:33.41) followed by Olivia Alamos who took eighth (3:33.32).
"That was a good swim for (Paysyn)," said Preston. "Not quite where she wants to be, but right where she should have been."
The 50-Free had Andi Hardebeck in fourth (28.52), Ava Robinson in seventh (29.48) and Sarah Heaps in ninth (29.69).
One of the top performances for Moses Lake came in the 100-Fly with Sydney Stevens taking first (1:08.89), which Preston said took three seconds off her best time. Stevens was followed by Andi Hardebeck in fourth (1:14.55) and Mya Hempel in eighth (1:45.31).
"Andi Hardebeck, she's doing really good for a first-year swimmer," said Preston. "She took a couple years off and came in as a freshman and is really contributing to our program a lot."
Kimball Roylance had a top 10 finish in the 100-Free as she took fifth (1:06.69).
Ashlynn Aronsohn (7:55.56) and Annabelle Dacy (8:25.63) followed in the 500-Free with a fourth and fifth place finish respectively for both to qualify for districts.
"That was really fun to have them in there," said the coach.
The 100-Backstroke saw Moses Lake athletes finish one after the other as Sarah Heaps took fifth (1:15.33), Kimball Roylance took sixth (1:16.31) and Taylor McKay took seventh (1:17.09). Not long after Ava Center finished in tenth (1:19.41. Similarly, in the 100-Breaststroke, Paysyn Torrey took third (1:21.23) and Sydney Stevens took fourth (1:21.55).
For diving, Mia Thompson with 256.60 points, Lexie Gruber with 137.20 points and Lyla Jackson with 108.40 points took second, third and fourth respectively.
While the League meet wasn't scored, it did provide everyone a chance to tune up and be ready for the competition ahead.
"It's good to have that meet a week out so we can get the bugs out," said Preston. "It works for everybody, not just our team. It works for all the other teams as well and I think they enjoy coming and swimming in the pool, even if they're swimming in off-events."
The coach said Moses Lake's biggest lesson from their league meet was the fact that the team wasn't ready for districts at that point. This was something he had anticipated and spent the last week working with the girls to have their focus on the district finals.
This focus is coming quick as Thursday, Oct. 29 will have the diving team already participating in their finals. During the finals each athlete will have one attempt at their 11 dives.
Swimming will have their prelims first before getting into the finals Saturday.
"It's a good spot to be in, but (we) know the best is yet to come for our kids," said Preston.
The overall mindset for the Mavs remains positive as the girls prepare to give their all over the next few days, he said. From his perspective, the team has really come together at this point in the season, which has been a testament to how hard each of the girls worked this season.
"They're all getting excited," said the coach. "They're resting up, they've got that extra energy, so seeing all their hard work pay off, and really looking like this is the sum of all their hard work and this is really where we want to be."
The Mavs will be giving their all as they host districts with the diving finals Thursday at 1 p.m. and the swim prelims at 5 p.m. The swimming finals will be Saturday at 11 a.m.