The Olympia girls swimming team cruised in a four-way meet against Black Hills, Tumwater and Shelton at Shelton High School Tuesday afternoon.
Olympia won all 12 events, with Preita Sanders and Priya Sanders each taking part in four victories. The sisters made up half of Olympia’s winning 200-yard medley relay team, along with Paulina Mueller and Lily Boyle. They finished in 2 minutes, 1.89 seconds, more than 10 seconds faster than the next highest finisher.
Preita and Priya also joined Amulya Keitheri Cheteri and Nastasia Moniodis in the 400-yard freestyle relay, winning in 4:01.75.
Priya Sanders won the 200-yard individual medley at 2:25.31 thanks to a blazing 31.52-second butterfly. She took home the title in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:33.58.
Preita Sanders secured the 50-yard freestyle crown at 26.69 seconds, just narrowly beating teammate Aila Swanson, who took second at 26.89 seconds. Preita won the 100-yard backstroke at 1:07.04.
“The Sanders sisters continue to be undefeated to anyone but each other,” Olympia head coach Henry Valz said.
Olivia Smith clinched the top prize in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:07.13, while Anna Ho set a new personal-best time by over 20 seconds at 1:09.71 to finish second. Swanson’s 100-yard freestyle time of 59.59 seconds was enough for first place.
Mueller (1:16.52) and Boyle (1:17.48) both shined in the 100-yard breaststroke, setting personal bests in their first- and second-place finishes, respectively.
Moniodis prevailed in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:12.22, a personal best. Isabella DiBenedetto-Campos was the top diver with a final score of 93.00, while Black Hills’ Zofia Yantis took second at 91.80.
Olympia’s 200-yard freestyle relay team of Boyle, Swanson, Mueller and Moniodis sailed to a first-place swim at 1:51.53.
“We’re in the heart of the training season, and we are working incredibly hard,” Valz said. “We are starting to see the first signs of the hard work that we hope carries us far this year.”
Tumwater’s Elle Fields finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle (7:08.90) and the 200-yard freestyle (2:35.41), while Eva Murguia took fourth in the 100-yard backstroke at 1:22.14.
This meet was personal for Valz, as he has coached Olympia and Black Hills, swam for Tumwater, and coached Black Hills coach Leah Rietema. Rob Phelan, an assistant coach at Shelton, coached against Valz when Valz swam at Tumwater.
“It’s a really cool coaching and swimming environment that we have in the South Sound,” Valz said. “It was a really neat experience to go back to Shelton as a head coach, with all the connections between these four programs.”
