Celebration Time!

Tigers second, third at districts
McMinnville sweeps the boys’ and girls’ meets, but NHS qualifies five of six relays and six individuals for the state finals this weekend
By: Seth Gordon Published: 2/16/2011 11:45:59 AM
Photo By: Seth Gordon

On to state
The 400 freestyle team of Alysha Bush, Cassie Beecher, Catherine Mays and Meghan O’Halloran swam a 3:40.79 to finish first, earn a trip to the state championships and set a new team record.

McMINNVILLE — It was a record-setting weekend for the Newberg girls swimming team, but not a district championship weekend.

After going undefeated through the dual-meet portion of the Pacific Conference schedule, the Tigers set new school records in all three relays, but finished third Friday and Saturday behind Tualatin and the host Grizzlies at the McMinnville Aquatic Center.

The Newberg boys, who went 5-2 to place third in the conference during the dual-meet season, closed strong on Saturday to place second behind McMinnville.

Head coach Rich Tobergte, however, was less concerned with pushing for district titles than he was with giving his team the best chance to succeed at this weekend’s state championships at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham.

Both the girls and boys appeared to have followed through on that front, each qualifying three individuals and five of six relays for the state finals.

“The thing about it is that we’re not rested yet,” Tobergte said. “We don’t necessarily rest for this meet. We bring them down a little bit more next week, then fine-tune some things with starts and turns. We’ll go in and give the state a run.”

The girls 200 freestyle relay team of Alysha Bush, Cassie Beecher, Meghan O’Halloran and Catherine Mays not only set a new school record, but broke the district championship meet record with their winning time of 1:39.43.

“It was awesome,” Tobergte said. “It was a great swim. They were really pumped about it beforehand.”

The same foursome also won the 400 freestyle relay in 3:40.79 to set another school mark. Bush, Beecher, Mays and Anna Dolyniuk placed second in the 200 medley relay in an automatic state-qualifying time of 1:53.20 — also a new Tigers record.

Bush also set a new NHS record by winning the 100 free in 52.99, with O’Halloran also qualifying for the state meet with her third-place time of 56.51.

O’Halloran will swim two individual events at the state finals after her second-place showing in the 200 freestyle (2:02.90) was good enough to qualify for the finals, as was Mays’ runner-up finish in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.68).

“The girls will have a good lineup for the state championships,” Tobergte said. “Hopefully, we can get them on the podium. It would be the first podium finish for the girls.”

Also finishing in the top eight for the girls were Dolyniuk in the 200 free (sixth-2:07.20) and 100 breast (fifth-1:13.92), Ellie Schmidt in the 50 free (seventh, 28.59), Maggie Peterson in the 50 free (eighth, 28.79), Beecher in the 200 free (sixth, 2:05.64) and Gassner in the 100 free (seventh, 1:03.65.)