Piranhas excel at divisionals
Danika Whitcomb competes in the backstroke at the divisional meet.
The small swim team from Plains kept up their big time swimming this past weekend when they traveled to Conrad for the Divisional Swim Meet.
The small swim team from Plains kept up their big time swimming this past weekend when they traveled to Conrad for the Divisional Swim Meet.
Overall, the team placed tenth at the meet and took ninth place in the relays. Individually, 14 members of the team made the trip to the swim meet and 13 of those individuals placed in the top 12 and will be traveling onto the state meet in Conrad this week.
One of those individuals who had a big weekend was Grace Alexander who placed third in the 25 breast stroke. Alexander, competing in the 8 and under Bantham category placed third out of 44 total competitors.
“Forty-four kids and getting third, that’s really extravagant,” says Coach Kelli Nance. “I was just very proud. Not so much shocked, but more like ‘whoa she did it.’”
Another girl who had an eye-opening performance was Danika Whitcomb, who after placing fourth in the 50 back on Saturday, came back on Sunday and moved up two spots to take second.
The high finish and good time, 42.03, has Coach Nance hoping for at least a top five finish at the state meet for Danika.
However, more than these two performance Coach Nance thought the best moment for her was watching little Grace Horton provide her bravest performance of the year.
“My most special [moment] was little Gracie not even holding onto the rope or the wall or anything like that. I was very proud of her. In all of her events she didn’t touch the wall once,” says Coach Nance.
Along with the individual performances, the boys sent both their relay teams to the state meet grabbing fifth place in both of them. The girls also sent a relay team to the state meet by placing fifth in the 100 free relay.
The performances by all of the piranhas left Coach Nance very excited about the state meet this week.
“If everyone keeps up their time from divisionals they should keep up in that bracket of doing exceptionally well,” says Coach Nance.
Now the attentions of the piranhas have turned to the notoriously strong eastern conference. After competing against only 12 teams this week, they will have to contend with a total of 25 teams this upcoming week. However their coach says the team has been working very hard for the last couple weeks and they’re reaching their peaks.