Big Sandy Swim Team 2nd place in Class A.
The Big Sandy Barracuas swim season came to a dramatic end on Sunday in more ways than one. The team finished with their highest ranking in the state ever with the Roaring Lion fire providing a striking backdrop for team photos. The Barracudas captured the second place trophy in the Class A division, edging out western division rival Columbia Falls, and taking down Glendive, Roundup and Malta from the eastern division. The Scobey Swim Team, whose team comprises of 44 swimmers, took the Class A honors. In comparison, the Barracudas saw 32 swimmers on the team during the regular season, with 28 of them qualifying for state in either individual events or relays. This was the first year that the Barracudas were placed in the Class A division for state sweet meet. Class rankings for state are determined at the divisional meet based upon the number of overall points scored. The top 5 point grabbing teams in the state are placed in Class AA, and consisted of Bitterroot, Lewistown, Chinook, Sidney & Conrad. The next six make up Class A, with the remaining eleven teams rounding out Classes B & C. Strong performances by the team in several areas pushed the Barracudas ahead of Columbia Falls, who edged them out of a trophy at the divisional meet.
The team itself became a bit of a sensation over the weekend. Tyler Schwarzbach, Larry Geyer and Marilyn Swanson were featured on KECI-NBC Montana News broadcast about the meet. The focus of piece was excitement about the upcoming meet and the number of people who follow swim team and incredible support the teams receive from their local community. In the broadcast, Tyler mentioned that his Grandma Marilyn has never missed a meet. This is true for many of our swimmers, who have terrific support from Big Sandy community. The Barraducas were also featured on several TV and newspaper websites. The team posed with their second place trophy, while the Roaring Lion fire raged in the background. KRTV has since published an article to complement the photo. The article can be found on KRTV.com with Big Sandy Barracudas in the search box.
On the girl's side of the action, Mace Bachoco raced to a first place finish in the breaststroke, while also swimming the backstroke leg on the state champion 9-10 girls medley relay. Josalyn Genereux swam the breaststroke on the relay, Daisy LaBuda swam the butterfly and Lainey Terry rounded out the team swimming the free. Jai Baumnn swam to a second place finish in the 25 YRD breastroke in the 8 and under age group. Jenna Leader swam her first year in the senior division, but she proved that she is a competitor at any level, as she grabbed a second place finish in the 50 yard butterfly, as well as two 5th place finishes in the 100 fly and 200 M IM. Grace Finke also added a notable second place finish in the 100 YDS breaststroke.
The intermediate boys relay (Brady Pleninger, Tyler Schwarzbach, Cam Schwarzbach & Kade Strutz) proved that they are truly flawless this weekend, as they posted two big victories in the free and medley relays. The boys swam over 10 seconds faster than the second place Shelby Otters in the free relay while outpacing Bitterroot by almost seven seconds in the medley relay. They also proved that they are fierce competitors in individual events. Combined with junior division swimmer, Dillin Geyer, these five boys added 154 points to the team total of 275 points. Dillin Geyer raced to a win in the 200 IM, took second in the 50 fly and third in the 50 back. He also placed second overall in his age category (11/12) for the number of individual points scored in the meet. Cameron Schwarzbach brought home a third place finish in the 50 free, fourth in the 100 free and sixth in the 50 back to earn enough points to place fourth for overall points in the 11/12 division. Brady Pleninger met with tough competition at the state meet, but brought home gold in the 100 YDS backstroke and two second place finishes in the 50 free and 100 free. He was also second place in overall points for his division (13/14). Kade Strutz finished third for overall points with an impressive third place finish in the 50 free and fifth place finishes in the 50 fly and 200 IM. Tyler Schwarzbach rounded out fourth place for individual points with a third place finish in the 100 free, fourth in the 100 back and sixth in the 50 free.
The team would like to say thank you to the community of Big Sandy for supporting us this season. Your words of encouragement to our swimmers, as well as helping make our fundraisers, the Redneck relay and Sno-Cones sales, a huge success. We also would like to extend our gratitude for the donations we received. All monies raised through fundraising activities and donations are used for the continued operation of our team. Without your generosity, we simply would not exist.
Watch for complete results in next weeks issue.
