Mid-Columbia swimmers, divers head to state championship + College signings begin
The Mid-Columbia will send 13 individuals and 9 relay teams to this week’s WIAA girls state high school swimming and diving championships.
The event begins Thursday in Federal Way, with diving preliminaries.
Friday, the meet continues with all swimming prelims.
And Saturday, it’s all finals all the time for the three classifications — 4A, 3A and 1A/2A.
In the 4A meet, Richland senior Giulia Squeri could be the area’s best shot at winning an event.
Squeri is competing in the 100 freestyle event, where she has the fourth fastest time heading into it.
She is also sixth fastest in the field for the 4A 50 free event.
Other area swimmers involved in the 4A event are:
▪ Chiawana senior Carla Carbonell Guim in the 200 IM;
▪ Hanford junior Corinne Hatch in 1-meter diving;
▪ Chiawana senior Sidney Leavens in 1-meter diving;
▪ Hanford sophomore Anikka Peterson in the 500 free;
▪ Richland junior Isabella Zumini in the 1-meter diving.
In addition, Richland will send relay teams for both the 200 free and 400 fee events.
Southridge junior Paisley Walkley and Walla Walla senior Lana Miller have each qualified for two individual events in the Class 3A meet.
Walkley will swim in the 200 free and 500 free.
Miller is in the 100 fly, and 100 back.
Kennewick senior Laney Harmsen has qualified for the 100 breaststroke; while Kennewick sophomore Delaney Rush and Walla Walla sophomore Elliot Zanes will compete in 1-meter diving.
Southridge is also bringing its 200 medley relay team, while Wa-Hi qualified its 400 free relay.
Two swimmers up the valley — Grandview junior Jedida Alvarez and Prosser sophomore Hannah Perkins — will compete in the 1A/2A competition.
Alvarez is in the 100 fly and the 100 breaststroke; Perkins is also in the 100 breaststroke.
Grandview will also bring all three of its relay teams to compete in the 200 medley, 200 free and 400 free relay events.
Prosser has relay teams in the 200 medley and 400 free events.
▪ Another team to keep an eye on this weekend is Moses Lake. The Mavericks will be involved in the 4A meet, and the team is coached by Jason Hart.
This is the same Jason Hart who has coached swimming at Southridge, Kennewick, Chiawana and Pasco.
Hart is the son of legendary football and swimming official Don Hart, who tipped me off about Jason.
Jason Hart became the head coach for both the Moses Lake girls and boys teams in August, and he commutes daily from his Pasco home to Moses Lake.
“He is liking it because they have their own indoor facility in Moses Lake,” said Don Hart, “and he has high expectations for his team at state since they won their district two weeks ago.”
Signings
Wednesday marks the first day for college signings (there will be others), and a couple trickled in Wednesday morning.
Richland High senior Kylee Fox signed on the dotted line to play women’s basketball for Fresno State. Fox is a two-time Mid-Columbia Conference MVP.
Also, Kamiakin catcher Kooper Jones signed his letter of intent to play baseball for Washington State University.
Prep football
River View head coach Kris Welch tweeted out Tuesday that his Panthers (9-1) will play their first-round, 2B state playoff game against Liberty of Spangle at Union Stadium in Spokane on Saturday.
Kickoff will be 5 p.m.
College soccer
Congrats to Chiawana grad Summer Yates and Tri-Cities Prep (and former Richland High star) McKenna Martinez for making the Pac-12 Conference’s women’s soccer all-conference team.
Yates is a fifth-year senior at the University of Washington who made the first team.
On Oct. 10, she set a school record by playing in her 87th career Husky game — the most by any Husky ever.
Her goal in UW’s 3-2 win over WSU in Pullman last Saturday was her 27th career goal for UW.
Meanwhile, Martinez is just a sophomore at Oregon State. And while the Beavers struggled in the conference standings, Martinez played well enough that she was named third-team all-conference.
▪ Drew Axel graduated last June from Tri-Cities Prep and was a standout for the Pasco High School boys soccer team in high school.
Axel just finished his freshman season playing for Hamline University in Minnesota.
The defender was second on the team in minutes played with 1,307, and he had one assist.
Hamline finished 5-12 this fall.
Track and field
Walla Walla head track and field coach Eric Hisaw announced this past week that Dash Sirmon, who graduated from Wa-Hi last June, was named a first-team High School All-American in the boys javelin by Track and Field News.
Sirmon threw the javelin 221 feet, 1 inch, at the Nike Championships last season.
Originally planning to throw the javelin this coming year for the University of Washington, Sirmon changed his mind in late spring and is now competing for the University of Nebraska.
Jeff Morrow is former sports editor for the Tri-City Herald.
