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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Swimmers shine at Nationals

The Spokesman-Review

Five Spokane Area Swimming team members competed at the USA Junior National Championships, held Aug. 9-13 in Irvine, Calif.

Nick Blank (Lake City High School) qualified for next year’s spring national championships in three events, finishing seventh in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 8 minutes, 22.60 seconds; 11th in the 1,500 freestyle (16:07) and 28th in the 400 freestyle (4:08.81).

Blank also met the time standard for next summer’s national championships, the premier meet of the year, with his 800 freestyle performance.

Also qualifying for the spring nationals was Marshel Renz (University). He met time standards in the 200 individual medley, finishing 15th (2:11.17), as well as the 400 IM (4:37.48).

Renz also competed in the 100 (1:09.49; 50th place) and 200 (2:30.12; 34th place) breaststroke events.

Blank and Renz were members of Spokane Area Swimming’s 800 freestyle relay team, which set a new Inland Empire record (7:59.10) and finished 17th. Also on the relay team were Sam Thompson (Lewis and Clark) and Lee Nelson (University).

On the girls’ side, Jenni Dole (Mead) finished 42nd in the 200 backstroke (2:28.76) and 55th in the 100 butterfly (1:06.80).

Tennis

Audrionna Farr finished second in the girls 14 division at the USTA-sanctioned Walla Walla Dual Level 5 Championship, which concluded Sunday at Whitman College.

Farr defeated No. 1 seed Meghan Cassens 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals and Lea Jansen 6-2, 6-0 in the semis before falling to Annie Mulholland 7-6 (4), 7-6 (6).

Baseball

The Spokane Crush 11U baseball club, a Pony League team, recently finished their season 24-3 in preparation for next weekend’s AAU national tournament in Portland.

After qualifying for the AAU nationals in June, the Crush have been playing all-star tournaments throughout Eastern Washington, Montana and Canada.

The Crush will play the first of a potential seven games on Sept. 2.