Girls Swim and Dive Finish Season at WIAA State - By Rylee Morris
The Richland Girls Swim and Dive concluded their season at the State Championships over the weekend. The team collectively took 11 athletes; Alice Williams, Shyla Asmus, Brooke Posada, Rylee Morris, Kait Prigge, Isabelle Vetter, Kristyna Matyas, Elizabeth Schmitt, Maddie Norris, Alex Schafer, and Avi McGinnis. 5 individuals qualified in their district meet 2 weeks prior; Alice Williams in diving, Shyla Asmus in the 500-yard freestyle, 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays, Brooke Posada in the 50-yard freestyle, 100 yard backstroke, 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays, Maddie Norris in the 200 and 400 yard freestyle relays, and Rylee Morris in the 100 yard freestyle, and 200 and 400-yard freestyle relays. Many of the girls had exceptional races at the district meet two weeks prior with numerous time drops and standing improvements and collectively won the district meet for the first time since 2014.
Diving was the first event of the meet on Thursday evening. Alice Williams, after finishing first in the district meet, was seeded 8th going into preliminaries. The year prior, Alice barely missed making state but returned with a vengeance to win the district meet this year. Asking Alice how she prepared for this season, she said, “I prepared by trusting my training and going to practice every day even when I didn't want to, and especially trusting that my coach knows best.” Alice did her 5 dives of the preliminary round and made the first cut down to 20 divers. From there, she had 3 more dives to compete in the semi-finals before 4 more divers were cut. Alice kept consistent with her seeding and made the top 16 into finals. While other competitors had completed their higher-difficulty dives in the preliminaries and semis, Alice had her most challenging dives saved for last. Alice ultimately finished 11th and was the only athlete who 'finaled' in the state meet from Richland.
Friday was the preliminary round for the swim portion of the state meet. To make the finals, Richland swimmers must place 16th or higher. Looking at the psych sheets, it was clear that the state meet would be fast. After a hiatus on both the boy's and girls' sides from COVID, the meet was finally back to its usual level. For example, Kennedy Catholic Church was a clear force with which to be reckoned. They had the top seed times for 5 different events; 4 individuals and 1 relay. Richland’s first swimmer to compete was Brooke Posada in the 50-yard freestyle. She entered the meet seeded 23rd with a time of 26.10 seconds. Brooke kicked off the meet for Richland with an exceptional swim, dropping almost a second and going 25.4 seconds. She moved up to 18th and was an alternate for finals. Next was Rylee Morris in the 100-yard freestyle. Rylee was seeded 24th after a hard fight with Kamiakin swimmer Alaina Cathey at the district meet for second place and the final allotment to state. Rylee finished with a slight add-in time, going a 1:00:27 minutes and staying in 24th place. Right after, Shyla Asmus competed in the 500-yard freestyle. Shyla was seeded 20th with a time of 5:36:33 minutes. She fought hard during the entirety of the event and finished 19th with a personal best time of 5:31:89 minutes. Immediately after, Shyla and her relay team, with Brooke Posada, Rylee Morris, and Maddie Norris, gathered for the 200-yard freestyle relay. They were seeded 24th but moved up to 23rd after prelims despite a slight add-in time. The last individual event was Brooke Posada in the 100-yard backstroke. Brooke again had an impressive swim, dropping over half a second and moving up to 21st. The last event of the night was the 400-yard freestyle relay consisting of Brooke Posada, Rylee Morris, Maddie Norris, and Shyla Asmus. After a long night of swimming, the girls persevered and added a bit of time to their best time, placing them 23rd.
On Saturday, during swimming finals, as predicted, Kennedy Catholic won the 4A meet. It was a fast and snappy meet and a great conclusion for the 24-25 season for Richland Girls Swim and Dive. The team fought through adversity, injuries, and illness but carried on and won the league title, MCC Championships, and their district meet, qualifying more swimmers than last year in both the district and state meet. Additionally, the MCC as a whole had great showings at the state meet. Delany Rush of Kennewick placed seventh in diving, Miriam Hutchens of Walla Walla in 12th for diving, Madelyn Smith 14th in the 200-yard individual medley and 12th in the 500-yard freestyle, and Esther Mei of Hanford 11th in the 200-yard individual medley and 10th in the 100-yard butterfly. This year was also the first time in six years that Kamiakin Swim and Dive has qualified for the state meet. Alaina Cathey of Kamiakin shared, “It felt unreal that after so long, Kamiakin finally made it, especially with coaches who have two years of experience with Kamiakin students on their belt. I’m so happy to be a part of Kamiakin’s swim team and hopefully we’re able to qualify for more events in the future!”. In conclusion of the meet, head coach Nicole Weinman reflected on the season, stating, “We have seen so much success this year. The reason we think we have seen this success is because our kids want it. Our girls are competitive and have a high drive to succeed and a drive to win. Our coaching staff has been with this group of kids since we took over the program 3 years ago. This group gets what it is all about, and that is doing what it takes to win the finish. We are going to miss this senior leadership that our captains provided this season, and it’s hard to say goodbye. But we know the next group of seniors are up for the challenge to lead and take that momentum that was built this year to the state finals next season.” As the team bids their seniors adieu and close this season, they look forward with optimism and high hopes for the 25-26 season.
