Swim Team headed to Divisionals

The Malta Swim Team is headed to Chinook this weekend for the Montana Federation of Swimmers East Divisional meet. "We are definitely going to step it up," Malta Swim Team Head Coach Shay Garfield said about this week's practices. "We are going to be sprinting a lot more. By now there is not a lot of formwork that we are working on." The team participated in the Lewistown Swim Meet on Saturday, July 21 through Sunday, July 22, which was the final regular season of the meet. Malta had 10 swimmers. Jillian O'Brien led Malta taking first in two events and third in another event. O'Brien won the Women 15-19 100 Fly with a time of 1:31.88 and the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:32.74, and third in the 200 IM with a time of 3:07.98. "Six a.m. practices are not very fun and it's really nice that she comes to practice every day and works hard even though it is so early in the morning," Malta Swim Team Coach Garfield said. "And it shows that she wants to get better and wants to improve in everything." Jahmiah Huffman-LaBrie took first place in the Boys 9-10 50 Flystroke with a time of 50.74. He also took second place in the 50 Backstroke with a time of 47.52 and second in the 100 IM. Denvyr Tuss took first place in the 50 Backstroke with a time of 45.50. Winning the event was a part of Tuss' plans this summer. "Denvyr is one of those kids who sets a goal and goes out there and does it," Coach Garfield said. "Her goal this weekend was to take first in the backstroke. She went in fourth and came out first for the weekend, so she is awesome." Denvyr expanded on her goal for the summer. "I wanted to beat two people in the backstroke and it took me all year to do it," Tuss said. "It felt really good. I didn't know I won because it was a really close race so I was quiet but when I got out of the pool I was really happy." Her ultimate goal is to make State because she missed out last season. Tuss shared what it would take to make state. "Keeping my place in the backstroke and getting a better time in the fly," Tuss said, mentioning that practice would be key. Taya Wilke took first place in the Girls eight and under 25 Breaststroke with a time of 45.24. A young swimmer, six-year-old Nolan Moore left quite the impression in Lewistown as he cut off a combined total of 21 seconds in his swims. "Nolan Moore did awesome. He took off 16 seconds in his 25 Free, five seconds in his 50 free and a little more time in his backstroke. He did awesome and I was so proud of him this weekend." Shaving time off of swims has been a constant for the Malta Swim Team and the trend didn't stop in Lewistown. "This meet went really well and like I've been saying, everyone takes time off every weekend and it's been awesome," Coach Garfield said. "It shows them that their hard work is paying off, especially since we are getting ready for Divisionals this weekend." Erika Nagy also cut a large amount of time off of her 400 Freestyle, shaving 11.15 seconds off of her previous best for a time of 7:47.68. There is a possibility that sixteen swimmers will attend the Divisional Meet this weekend, but so far Coach Garfield knows that ten are definitely swimming. Coach Garfield shared what swimming in Chinook is like at a meet. "I always enjoy Chinook," Coach Garfield said. "They usually run a pretty fast meet and there usually aren't many problems. The only thing that really scared me was that their blocks are really high, so you're diving into the shallow end."