18 swimmers headed to state

At the Eastern Divisional swim meet in Plentywood, the Malta Swim Team only had 19 of their 45 swimmers, however 18 swimmers qualified for the state meet in Roundup this weekend.

Malta took eighth overall as a group and 13 of the 18 state qualifiers placed in the top twelve in all three of their events.

The following swimmers placed in the top six finals in all three of their events:

Carly Garfield, Shay Garfield, Darrow Messerly, Grant O'Brien, Jillian O'Brien, Connor Tuss.

These swimmers placed in the top 12 in all 3 of their events:

Reba Doucette, Chloe Hunter, Kylie Hunter, Raleigh Hunter, Erika Nagy, Danika Wilke, Makiya Wilke.

The following swimmers also qualified for state in at least 1 individual event:

Reese Brown (2), Taylor Score (2), Marcus Woods (2), Denvyr Tuss (1).

Lauren Tuss will be competing with the girls 9-10 relay team.

"We swam well and cut time," Coach Donnie Lynn told the PCN. We only had 19 swimmers and they did perform well. Of course that's a lot of pressure at divisionals.

Coach Lynn told the team that Saturday was the most important swim of the year because it was the day that they would qualify for state.

He went on to say the team celebrated Saturday night and had a more lax day last Sunday.

This week however, Coach Lynn will ask for the very best effort from all of his swimmers on Saturday and Sunday.

"If they qualify on Saturday to swim in the finals on Sunday, I'm sure they will take care of themselves on Saturday night," Lynn said. "They will not be out and staying out late because Sunday is the last swim of the year. This is what we've been preparing for all year."