Swim team grows at Goldendale

Andrew Christiansen
Reporter

     It started three years ago when Jennifer Smith and her girls were watching a swim meet in The Dalles. Nadia, who was five at the time, was apparently hooked. Enough so that the family joined The Dalles swimming club and drove to the Fitness and Court Club through the winter, to participate.
     Now there are 13 members of the team from Goldendale, working out in the Goldendale pool four days per week. They are still part of The Dalles swim club because they lack enough members per age group to allow everyone to swim relays. The combined team at The Dalles has about 115 members.
     Anyone who is interested in joining the team can still do so by showing up at a practice at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday.      Thursday practices are at Ted Walker Memorial pool near Safeway in The Dalles.
Competition is divided into age groups from five to 18 years old and adults. Four strokes are used in competition, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. Distances vary from 50 to 200 yards.
     The Oregon State swim meet for 10 and under will be held in Albany on July 11-13. Four swimmers have qualified for the event, including three from Goldendale. They are Nadia Smith, qualifyied in all four strokes at 50 yards, plus the 100 yard freestyle, and Hailey Bigbie and Jade Smith qualified for relay. Locally, the team is coached by volunteers, Sarah Eldred and John Bright. The team is coached by hired coaches, Jim Aumann and Shea Macnab, in The Dalles.
     Future meets will be held on the third weekend in July and first two weekends in August. A practice meet was held in Goldendale, June 21.
     In a related note, the Goldendale swimming pool top did not come down last week as scheduled due to conflicts related to weather. It wasn’t the weather in Goldendale, rather it was tornado damage to similar tops in Nebraska and flooding of others along the Mississippi River.
     Company representatives were to assist with the first dismantling of the top, but now believe it will be late July or early August before they can assist. The upside, according to manager, Lori Anderson, is that it was only 89-90 degrees inside the dome, while the thermometer climbed above 100 degrees outside. Anderson was unsure of the heat index, but was certain that 103 degrees on concrete would not be better than being inside the dome. Anderson said the top may stay up, depending on how things go back east.

Olympics will have to wait for local women

     Annie Hess and Lindsey Blaine will have to wait until 2012 for another shot at the Olympics, as they missed a top three finish at the trials held in Eugene, last weekend.
     Blaine, a Lyle High School graduate, made it to the finals, but placed eighth in the javelin.
     Hess, of Bickleton, couldn’t get on track in the discus and didn’t make the finals. Hess is back in competition this month in Mexico at the under 23 year old championships. After that she is aiming for the World Championships to be held next year in Berlin.

Wrestling camp shows off

     After spending nearly of month working out in the Goldendale Gym, members of the wrestling camp got to show their stuff at a meet in Goldendale last Saturday. Matching up in a round-robin match, each wrestler performed in three or four matches during the day.
     The camp, in its second year, will continue through July.