Piranhas send 7 to state

The Plains Piranhas had quite a showing at the Divisional Swim Meet in Conrad this past weekend. The team took nine swimmers to divisionals and seven were able to qualify for the State Swim Meet in Fort Benton this weekend. On top of that the team placed third out of 11 teams.

“They did really good, I was really impressed with their performance,” Coach Derek Danhof said.

Out of the seven swimmers who qualified for states, there were four who qualified for the State Swim Meet in all three of their events. Laurel Danhof, Austin Campbell, Danika Whitcomb, and Josh Connolly all qualified in all three of their events, which is quite an accomplishment.

“Those guys all did really well, they’re the ones that actually stood out the most,” Danhof said. He said he was excited to be able to take four swimmers in all of their events to states. “It shows just how hard they’ve worked this season,” he said. “They deserve it.”

The other swimmers who competed in divisionals were Grace Alexander, Aaron Campbell, Natale Deschamps, Misty Lindbo and Kelli Nance.

Danhof said he was impressed with how his swimmers performed last weekend and is sure that they’ll be able to have just as strong of a showing when they head to Fort Benton for states.

“We may be small, but we’ve got a really strong group of swimmers,” he said.

Lisa Whitcomb, mother of Danika Whitcomb, agreed. “It is just incredible that we could come in third place out of 11 or 12 teams, especially with our numbers.”

Whitcomb went on to say that they have a really great group of swimmers and she is excited to see just what all they can do this weekend at states.

Danhof said that he is looking forward to states and that several of his swimmers have a very good chance of placing.

“We usually have a pretty decent showing at states, and I definitely think that we’ll be able to keep that up for this year,” he said.