Southridge senior Katie Smoot became the team's first diver this season to qualify for the 4A state meet, compiling a score of 351.40 at an 11-dive meet Oct. 9 in Wenatchee.
Smoot, who finished seventh overall in diving at the 2008 state championships, was the only diver at the qualifier to earn a state berth.
But Southridge/Kennewick coach Jason Hart is confident that the Suns have another prospective qualifier in senior Mikaela Niles, who finished second overall in Wenatchee with a score of 295.50 and qualified for the 3A state diving finals for the Suns in 2006.
"We're hoping she can get qualified soon," Hart said.
Niles' next crack at qualifying for state comes Friday in Moses Lake at another 11-dive meet.
The 4A state standard is 315 points (11.6 degree of difficulty), with the 3As at 300 points and the 2As at 280.
Similar stories:
Hanford, Richland divers left out of today's finale
Hanford, Richland divers left out of today's finale
WALLA WALLA -- In tight swimming meets, it can be diving that makes the difference.
But when one team has diving and the other doesn't, it can make for quite the conundrum.
In their CBBN 4A-3A regular-season finale today, Hanford (7-0) and Richland (6-1) will head to Walla Walla (6-0), but diving will be crossed off the event lineup because Walla Walla's home pool at Whitman College lacks a board. As a result, the Blue Devils don't have any divers on their squad.
Divers kick off district competition today
Divers kick off district competition today
District swimming and diving action begins today when the divers take to the board for preliminaries at Moses Lake.
The swimming competition is scheduled for Friday and Saturday in Ellensburg.
Among the heavy favorites in diving are Moses Lake senior Sammy Hendrickson in 4A and Southridge sophomore Danielle Freund in 3A. Freund qualified for state with an 11-dive total of 315.40 on Sept. 23 in Kennewick, while Hendrickson got her mark Oct. 7 with a 327.55 in Moses Lake.
Southridge's Freund leads at diving districts
Southridge's Freund leads at diving districts
MOSES LAKE -- Southridge sophomore Danielle Freund bounced to the top of the leaderboard after Thursday's district diving preliminaries at Moses Lake.
Freund totaled 249.90 points over eight dives to finish the day with a 17-point lead over Robyn Sundlee of West Valley in the 3A competition.
Freund also held the overall advantage, with 4A leader Sammy Hendrickson of Moses Lake trailing by more than 10 points.
ML swimmers edge Southridge
ML swimmers edge Southridge
MOSES LAKE -- Breanna Lyons, Katelyn McLaughlin, Megan O'Leary and Rachel Schafer guided Southridge to two relay victories Tuesday night, but Moses Lake had home-pool advantage in a CBBN 4A/3A meet against the Suns, winning 99-87.
Lyons, McLaughlin, O'Leary and Schafer won the 200 medley relay in a state-qualifying time of 1 minute, 57.37 seconds and the 400 free in 3:55.58.
Moses Lake's Courtney Schwiesow again dipped under the state qualifying mark in the 100 breaststroke, winning in 1:10.01.
State-qualifying swim times heating up
State-qualifying swim times heating up
Looking at the times of Mid-Columbia swimmers less than a week into the season, one might think the girls state championships in Federal Way were just around the corner, not two months away.
At Saturday's Eastern Washington Jamboree in Prosser, Hailey Rankin of the host Mustangs swam the 100-yard butterfly in a state-qualifying time of 1 minute, 2.32 seconds.
That night, more state qualifiers rolled in at the Richland Twilight Jamboree. Hanford senior Melissa Merrill qualified on her own in the 50 freestyle, then helped the Falcons achieve state-qualifying times in the 400 free and 200 medley relays.
Print
Email Story
