Swim Team: 17 headed to State

The Malta Swim team took twenty swimmers to last week's Eastern Divisional Meet in Sidney and seventeen of those swimmers will be swimming in the State Meet this weekend in Lewistown.

Though the swim team may not have had the same amount of swimmers they had ten years ago, the team advanced eighty-five percent of their team, which had Malta Swim Team Head Coach Cassie Pratt in good spirits during practice.

"We lost three, which were two first year Midgets and a Bantum, so I am very happy with those results and those three that did not make it worked very hard and I am very proud of them," Coach Pratt said.

The meet had unfavorable weather conditions but the team pushed through.

"It was hot," Coach Pratt said. "It's always hot in Sidney, but it was nice because Saturday it was overcast and cloudy but Sunday was hot."

Despite the heat on the second day, Coach Pratt applauded the venue on their timeliness.

"Sidney ran a very fast meet," she said. "We were done by 2:30 or 3:00 p.m. Divisionals do not get done that quickly. It was awesome. They were ready to go and it was very refreshing."

The team will see two walking seniors swim their last competitive laps this weekend as Ella Schye and Shay Garfield have announced earlier in the season that this was the final year for both of them.

Coach Pratt was proud of how they swam last weekend.

"They both had a great weekend," Coach Pratt said. "Ella placed in top four. She got second, third and fourth place finishes in her events. Her 400 was the most impressive. She took seven seconds off of her strokes. It was an awesome race to watch her. She has been working hard all year."

She also shared her thoughts on Garfield's performance.

"Shay had a great race in her 200 IM," Coach Pratt said. "She took six seconds off, placing fifth. She was top six in all of her races as well."