Piranhas on the prowl

The Plains Piranhas made a big splash in their first swim meet of the season, finishing in third place in front of the home crowd Sunday.

The Piranhas accumulated 355 points in the nearly 150-event, two-day meet to finish third out of the 11 teams. The Bitterroot River Rats, which brought 80 swimmers to the meet, finished in first with 1,932 points and Columbia Falls finished in second with 521 points. The 80 River Rats competing in the meet was more than all swimmers from the other 10 teams combined.

“For the first meet I think they did really well,” said Piranha co-coach Amanda Hanson. She said six or seven of her 20 swimmers were competing in their first meet. “The first meet is about getting the nerves out and learning how to settle down and relax,” said Derek Danhof, the Piranhas other coach. With their first meet under their belt, Hanson said she expects her team to keep improving over the summer season. “The next meet will be 10 times better,” she said.

The Piranhas girls, powered by 12-year-old Mahala Harris and 9-year-old Danika Whitcomb, scored 234 to finish in third place in the girls competition. The River Rats finished in first with 928 points and Columbia Falls finished in second with 267. Both Harris and Whitcomb finished in second in their age group in the individual scores.

Harris had two first place finishes and two second place finishes to score 40 points, which was only two behind the 11-12 girls winner Conrad’s Makayla Barringer. Harris won the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 1:22.72 and came in second in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 36 seconds flat. Harris, who just learned the butterfly last week, finished first in the 50-meter butterfly with a time of 44:54 seconds. “I was very surprised. That was my first time, I only started practicing this week,” Harris said. “Amanda and Derek are amazing coaches,” she added.

“She’s our top swimmer,” Hanson said about Harris. She said Harris really shined on the second day of the meet, taking time off her events from the previous day. “She improved on all of them,” She said. Hanson said with a young team, it’s important to have a strong swimmer like Harris on the team. “I’ll have them look at her strokes,” she said.

If competing in an older age group bothered Whitcomb, she didn’t show it. Whitcomb, a 9-year-old competing in the 9-10 age group, finished tied with Columbia Falls Karyssa Nelson for second place with 36 points. Shelby’s Sarah Sanchez won the age group with 40 points. “She’s at the bottom of her age group, so she’ll really have to work hard,” Hanson said. Whitcomb did work hard, winning the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 48.68 and finishing second in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 42.65 seconds.

Hanson said she saw a lot of improvement in Keely Benson over the two-day meet. “She had a lot smoother stroke and improved on all her times,” she said. Benson, 11, scored 28 points to finish in fifth place in the 11-12 girls. Benson finished fourth in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 41.08 seconds and fourth in the 50-meter backstroke with a time of 57.72 seconds.

Laurel Danhof finished in sixth place in the 13-14 girls with 32 points. Danhof finished in second in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 1:37.10.

The Plains boys scored 121 points to finish in fourth place, right behind the Shelby Water Otters’ 135.50. The River Rats won with 928 points and Columbia Falls finished in second with 254. Piranha Logan Benson finished in third place in the 8 and under age group with 32 points.

Benson had a third place finish in the 25-meter backstroke with a time of 31.28 seconds. Benson also had a third place finish in the 25-meter breaststroke with a time of 31.28 seconds.

Joshua Connolly finished in sixth place in the 8 and under age group with 28 points. Connolly finished in fourth in the 25-meter backstroke and second in the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 52.90 seconds.

Plains will compete in Hamilton next week.