Piranhas devour the competition in Columbia Falls
<p>Jacelyn Dubois swims the butterfly at the home meet in Plains earlier in the season. Dubois placed 5th in the 200-meter IM.</p>
COLUMBIA FALLS- The Plains Piranhas went in search of prey over the weekend during the swim meet in Columbia Falls. 22 swimmers from the team competed over the weekend in their first meet on the road.
Husband and wife coaching team of Jake and Rachel Cremer took their relatively inexperienced team to only their second meet of the season so far. The first meet was held in Plains. Rachel Cremer said the team is showing potential.
“We had a good meet. Several of our swimmers had personal best times so they’re improving,” said Cremer.
Swimmers competed in the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly events. Athletes also competed in an event known as the individual medley or IM. This event challenges swimmers to use all four strokes in the same race.
Cremer said the team had been working on the fundamentals in preparation for the meet in Columbia Falls. She also said the team would begin gradually increasing the distance swimmers travel during practice.
“We have been working on starts and turns and we are going to start upping the yardage of the workouts. We are looking forward to a good meet this coming weekend,” said Cremer.
The Piranhas will swim into Chester this weekend for their next competition. Cremer said Chester is the furthest east the team will travel so she was looking forward to seeing how the kids do against Eastern Montana swimmers.
Top finishers in the Columbia Falls meet included: Alexander, Grace; 3rd place 50-meter freestyle; 2nd place 50-meter backstroke; Benson, Keely; 3rd place 400-meter freesyle; Benson, Logan; 4th place 100-meter breaststroke; 4th place 50-meter butterfly; Cole, Kaylee; 5th place 100-meter freestyle; Connolly, Josh; 6th place 100-meter backstroke; Cremer, Isaac; 5th place 50-meter freestyle; 5th place 100-meter freestyle; Cremer, Noah; 9th place 25-meter freestyle; 9th place 50-meter freestyle; Daems-Woods, Matthew; 7th place 25-meter freestyle and 50-meter freestyle; DuBois, Jacelyn; 5th place 200-meter IM; DuBois, Makiya; 4th place 100-meter freestyle and 50-meter butterfly; Ehret, Abigail; 5th place 100-meter breaststroke; Helterline, Alexis; 6th place 25-meter breaststroke; Horton, Grace; 5th place 25-meter breaststroke; Horton, Wyatt; 9th place 50-meter breaststroke; Pallister, Anna; 9th place 25-meter backstroke; Whitcomb, Danika; 2nd place 50-meter freestyle; 1st place 100-meter freestyle; 4th place 100-meter backstroke; relays: boys 9-10 100-meter freestyle 3rd place; girls 9-10 100-meter freestyle 4th place; girls 13-14 200-meter freestyle 4th place; girls 9-10 100-meter medley 3rd place; girls 13-14 200-meter medley 3rd place.