Swim Regionals Come To Cheney For The First Time

Curiosity isn’t the only reason Mike Guertin thinks people should come to Eastern Washington University this weekend when Cheney hosts the Districts 5-6-7 regional swimming meet for the first time.

The Cheney swimming coach calls Eastmont senior Zane DeWitz “one of the most impressive kids in the water today.”

DeWitz, headed for the University of Tennessee, will display his talents beginning at 3 p.m. Friday in the preliminaries.

Saturday, the competition begins with diving at 10 a.m. Swimming finals will start at 1:30. Sessions are expected to end about 7 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday.

In the AAA portion of the meet, the top individual in each event and the top relay teams qualify for state. It will be the top two in AA. Swimmers also can reach state next weekend in Federal Way by meeting qualifying standards.

Cheney junior Gavin Peterson has qualified for state in the 200-meter individual medley and is a half-second short of qualifying in the 500 freestyle. The Blackhawks’ 200 freestyle relay is in and the 200 medley relay is close.

Pullman has three qualifiers in Nate Wilbourn, Tim O’Connor and Mark McElwain, plus a relay team.

Cheney and Pullman are the only two District 7 teams with swimming teams. Other AA teams include Eastmont, Selah, West Valley-Yakima and Sunnyside.

Moses Lake, Wenatchee, Eisenhower and Davis are on the AAA side.

Despite the shortage of area competitors, Guertin doesn’t mind the work of putting on a regional.

“It’s worth it to me,” he said. “No. 1, I believe the sport of swimming is a lifelong sport. It’s done a lot of positive things in Cheney… . I’ve seen it turn a lot of people’s lives around.”

, DataTimes