Cheney swimmers end regular season with loss to Pullman

The Cheney High girls swim team wrapped up the league portion of their schedule last Saturday with a loss at home to perennial power Pullman, 107-65, and now turn their attention to district competition this weekend.

The Blackhawks won five of 11 events against the Greyhounds. Makenzie Norman captured first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.48 seconds, a season best, and was first in the 100 free in 55.56.

Alexis Schmidt captured the 200 individual medley in 2:19.78 and was first in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.79. She and Norman, both seniors, have already qualified for state in their events.

Echo Mecklenburg was Cheney’s final individual event winner, taking first in the 100 backstroke in 1:11.52. Courtney Hanson notched Cheney’s only other top-three finishes, taking second in the 100 butterfly in 1:01.99 and third in the 200 IM in 2:40.89.

In the 200 medley relay, the team of Isabell Williams, Elizabeth Potter, Mecklenburg and Abby Wood was second with a time of 2:14.03 while the 200 free team of Norman, Hanson, Wood and Schmidt was second in 1:49.14, 24/100ths of a second off the state qualifying time. Finally in the 400 free, the team of Norman, Hanson, Melissa Johnson and Mecklenburg was second in 3:59.66, beating the state qualifying mark by 34/100ths of a second.

Cheney head coach Jennifer Hochwalt said two more Blackhawks swimmers qualified for district competition, bringing to 17 the total number making the trip to Moses Lake this Friday and Saturday. She also hopes to sneak in one or two more through wild card entries.

Hochwalt thinks a number of her swimmers are in good position to advance out of districts to state by winning their events. Norman, who has already qualified for four individual events, is seeded number one in her two main events while Schmidt, who has qualified for three events at state, is number one in the butterfly and second in the individual medley.

Several other Cheney swimmers are seeded in the top eight as well.

“We’re fine tuning our sprints, and we’ll see what they results are this weekend,” Hochwalt said.

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