Malta Swim Meet

The Malta Swim team hosted its annual meet at the City Pool last Saturday, July 1 through Sunday, July 2 as scorching 90 degree heat kept many spectators in the shade.

Malta had a few first place finishers including a pair of their senior women who are in their final season with the team.

Shay Garfield graduated from Malta High School last May and she was able to win her favorite event the 100 meter breaststroke. Her victory comes despite missing time in the water. She shared how she did it.

“Just having strong pulls and strong kicks throughout my race even though I have been gone this past week,” Garfield said. “I just made sure that I focused on my form the whole time.”

Being that she swam her last laps last Sunday, Garfield shared her thoughts on it being her final home meet.

“It’s kind of bittersweet thinking that I won’t be competing in this pool anymore after this year,” Garfield said. “I had a lot of memories here over the past twelve years.”

She shared her fondest memory at the City Pool during a Malta home meet.

“When I was 9 or 10 years old, I had a three way tie for high point with me and my best friends Siri Pederson and Torey Dahl,” Garfield said.

Her last stroke of the day was the backstroke and she shared her plan for attacking the event.

“I just gotta remember to kick the whole time because sometimes I forget,” Garfield said with a laugh.

Fellow senior swimmer Ella Schye is a senior at Malta and is eligible for one more season but she shared that this season would be her final season with the swim team. Schye had won the 400 freestyle.

“I was the only girl in it,” Schye said with a smile. “There was another girl in it but she did an exhibition run.”

Though Schye had won an event she admitted the meet was not going as well as she had hoped.

“It’s not going really good,” she said. “I added time on two of my events. My 50 went good and I got second and I am hoping to cut time on my 100 today.”

In the meet’s final hours Malta Swim Team Coach Cassie Pratt shared her thoughts on the event.

“The meet has been going pretty well,” Coach Pratt said. “I’ve got kids taking off time and moving up places. Everything has been moving smoothly and we have had no disqualifications besides one relay team.”

Coach Pratt was hopeful that all of her relay teams would make the meet even though the Independence Day holiday was only a couple of days away.

“The relays went very well,” Coach Pratt said. “Relays are one of my favorite things to watch because you’ve got an individual sport being brought together with these four swimmers. All of my relays did very well and improved on their times so it was a good two days of relays.”

One young swimmer that stood out at the meet was nine-year-old MaRae Smail of Alder, Mont., who swims with the team throughout the summer months.

Smail took second in the 50 freestyle with a time of twenty-three seconds.

“I just tried my hardest,” Smail said. “It feels good.”

Smail makes the daily practices and was happy with how the meet turned out.

“It feels pretty good,” she said noting that swimming was her favorite part of the meet.

She said that she could hear her friends and family cheering her on as she swam and shared what she heard.

“GO MARAE!” Smail said also mentioning that her aunt Julie Moore screams the loudest.