MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Mavericks’ girls swim and dive team traveled to Cascade High School to compete in the Mukilteo Invitational on Saturday, where they earned 14th overall out of the 31 teams. 

“It went good – that’s the pool where we go back for our state competition in November, so it was getting some of the girls used to it that have never been there. And for other people that have been there, they get a chance to compete against some of the top swimmers in the state in probably the fastest pool in the state,” said Mavs head coach Tony Preston. 

The top finish for the Mavs came in the 100-yard freestyle event, where senior Bria Bodenman earned seventh place with a final time of 57.16. Dallie Cobb earned twenty-third in the event with a final time of 59.90 and twenty-second in the 50 Freestyle event. 

Other notable finishes from the meet include the 200 medley Relay, where Kimball Roylance, Papsyn Torrey, Ellen Center and Taylor McKay finished with a final time of 2:18.64. Torrey would also go on to earn twenty-seventh in the 200-meter individual medley. Chloe Saxton earned nineteenth in the one-meter 11 dives and Center earned thirty-eighth in the 100-meter butterfly event. 

“This really was a good midseason test for us,” said Preston. 

He said the Mavs have been working on putting together the basic building blocks, such as fitness, for the first part of the season. Now heading into October, the team is going to start focusing on specialties such as different kinds of strokes and diversifying their techniques. 

The Mavs are already looking ahead toward the district tournament Oct. 30, which gives them about four weeks to prepare, said Preston. In doing so, they will continue to grow week by week with each passing meet, he said.  

As the Mavs prepare for this week’s meet, he said they will focus on functioning more as a team.  

“Swimming tends to be an individual sport, but we really focus on having the girls together, cheering each other on and supporting each other,” said Preston. “Just coming together as a team is what I focus on and having that family atmosphere, the competition’s there, so it’s just getting them to be in the best mindset to compete.” 

The Mavs’ next meet will be Thursday at 4 p.m., where they will head to Lions Pool in Yakima. 

    The Mavs’ seniors Chloe Saxton, Lilly Kappel-Baker, Clara Larkin, Dallie Cobb and Bria Bodenman get together for a photo at the Mukilteo event. The seniors had a strong showing at the event with Bodenman earning the highest placement on the team.