Cheney swimming stretches win streak to four straight

Cheney High School's girls swimming team continued its success in the pool with three wins last week.

The Blackhawks hit the road for wins over Prosser, 114-51, and Grandview, 101-41 at Prosser. Results were not available at press time.

Cheney returned home to face Selah at Eastern Washington University's pool, winning all 11 events to down the Vikings 121-48 and extend their season record to 4-1.

Makenzie Norman, Alexis Schmidt and Melissa Johnson led Cheney with two individual event wins each. Norman captured first in the 50-yard freestyle in 25.88 seconds and in the 100 free in 56.12; times that were both below the state qualifying marks.

Schmidt won the 200 individual medley in 2:21.48 as well as the 100 butterfly in 1:01.42; times that, like Norman, were also below times needed to qualify for state. Both seniors have already qualified in those events for the Nov. 11-12 meet in Federal Way.

Johnson finished first in the 200 free in 2:21.42 and the 500 free in 6:17.31. Echo Mecklenburg touched the wall first in the 100 backstroke in 1:16.86 while Elizabeth Williams was first in the 100 breaststroke in 1:23.69. Cheney actually went 1-2-3 in the latter event, with Elizabeth Potter second (1:27.21) and Janice Powell third (1:30.49).

The Blackhawks were also 1-2-3 in the 100 free with Courtney Hanson second in 1:01.59 and Abby Wood third in 1:07.51. Second-place finishes went to Williams in the 200 free (2:22.46), Mecklenburg in the 100 butterfly (1:12.18) and Evarosa Perry in the 500 free (6:36.04).

Third-place finishes went to Hanson in the 200 IM (2:40.59), Wood in the 50 free (30.08), and Logan Krantz in the 100 backstroke (1:33.44).

Cheney also swept all three relay events. The team of Norman, Schmidt, Mecklenburg and Hanson got the meet started with a first-place finish in the 200 medley in 2:06.69, while the team of Norman, Mecklenburg, Hanson and Schmidt finished first in the 200 free in 1:49.82 - 1.32 seconds short of qualifying for state.

The Blackhawks wrapped up the scoring with the team of Williams, Perry, Wood and Johnson winning the 400 free in 4:28.08.

Cheney head coach Jennifer Hochwalt is pleased with where her team is performance-wise at the midway point of the season. The Blackhawks have another two weeks of hard racing before they begin tapering off their workouts in preparation for the district meet Oct. 28-29 at Washington State University.

So far, 13 Blackhawks have qualified in events for districts, and Hochwalt said there are several others who are "right on the cusp" of getting in.

Cheney hosts a non-league invitational this Saturday at EWU, beginning at 1 p.m., between Pullman and Western Washington schools Auburn and Auburn-Riverside. Hochwalt said it should be a fun meet, giving her girls an opportunity to swim against both known and different opponents.

"It'll be a nice change," she said. "They'll see some teams they've never swam against before, so we don't know what they'll do."

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.