EATON — The Eaton swim team has done it again.
In four of the past five years, the Eagles have sent a swimmer – or a group of swimmers – to the state meet and this year is no different.
They are sending two swimmers, Mason McCargish and Trey Gregory, to Canton to compete in the state meet on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 25-26.
McCargish qualified with a tenth place finish in the 50 freestyle with at time of 21.86 and 17th in the 100 freestyle with a time of 48.56. Gregory qualified with a 15th place finish in the 100 butterfly with a new Eaton record of 52.81. He also just missed qualifying in the 100 freestyle by .44 seconds.
“Both Mason and Trey have really worked hard to get to the state meet. They started swimming in August and doing the extra things like weights and three hour practices two times a week to prepare for the meet,” said head coach Dave Montgomery. “Mason really had to work extra hard to get to state – he broke his foot three weeks ago and we really did not know where he was going to end up in the season. He placed sixth in the state last year and I expect both him and Trey to be up on podium (this year).”
The Eagles also had some other good finishes at the district meet:
Lauren Ferguson continued to improve her school record in the 100 breast stroke with a time of 1:11.09 and she placed 18th at the meet. Josh Pool qualified in two events as he continued to improve on the record he set in the 200 IM at sectional to a time of 2:05.88 (placing 17th) and placed 16th in the 100 butterfly with a time of 55.97. Conley Mitchell qualified in the 500 freestyle and swam it in a time of 5:52.37, placing 32nd overall.
Both of the boys relay teams, made up of McCargish, Gregory, Pool and Aaron Scholl, performed well but missed the state meet by a small margin of time. The boys 200 medley improved their time from the sectional meet by 4.95 seconds with at time of 1:45.68 and missed state by 1.24 seconds. The boys 200 freestyle relay improved their sectional time by 3.19 seconds and swam it in 1:32.68 and missed state by .65 seconds.
“One of the nice things to look forward to is that (we) are only losing two seniors and if the kids stay in the water and keep working towards next year’s state, many of them should be able to make a good run at it and possible get in the meet,” said Montgomery.
