Sports

Celts pull off sweep over Caldera

McNary swimmer Caleb Skipper won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:04.92 (KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings).

For the second time in three weeks, the McNary swim team pulled off a sweep in their dual meet on Thursday, Jan. 20. The Celtic girls’ beat Caldera 81-55 while the boys’ squad won by a score of 88-65.

“We had a lot of kids step up. We just did the things we needed to do to get those wins. We only won a few races on the individual side, but we had tons of second and third place swimmers and we performed really well in the relays,” McNary head coach Casey Lewin said.

The best relay team for the McNary boys’ this season has been the 200-yard medley squad of Caleb Skipper, Tyshin Nguyen, Zander Rhoades and Zach Kilby. After getting ahead early, the McNary team fell behind by a few seconds going into the final leg of the race. But Kilby, one of the fastest freestyle swimmers in the league, made up the difference as the anchor and touched the wall more than two seconds faster than his opponent.

“We knew it was going to be a close race. It was mentally huge to perform well against a Bend school in that relay,” Lewin said.

Kilby didn’t compete in the 100-free, but his teammate Brayden Kaehler, a freshman, was able to pick up the slack, winning the race and finishing under a minute for the first time in his young career (59.48).

“That was really good to see. He is still learning how to race, but he has progressed really nicely. He wasn’t holding back in this race,” Lewin said.

Rhoades was victorious in the 100-butterfly (1:05.90) while Skipper won the 100-backstroke by more than 10 seconds (1:04.92). The Celtic boys’ also won the 200-free relay.

On the girls side, Kieran Montague won multiple individual events, picking up victories in the 200-free (2:38.25) and the 100-breaststroke (1:34.16). After sprinting to a big lead in the 100-breast, Montague was almost overtaken by Caldera’s Sage Cramp, but the McNary junior was able to finish strong in the final 25 yards to secure the win.

“That was really fun to see. She really enjoyed that race and getting that push at the end,” Lewin said.

In the 500-free, Amy Gillette won with a time of 7:24.86, a 20-second improvement on where she was at the start of the season according to Lewin.

“She has really done a good job of keeping her splits down and keeping that drive for the whole race,” Lewin said.

The McNary girls won the 200 and 400-free relays while Amelia Miller was the other individual winner for McNary, placing first in the 100-free (1:13.87).