Sweet Home star swimmer Megan Hager competed over the weekend in U.S. Swimming’s 2019 Futures Championships at Mt. Hood Aquatic Center in Gresham, coming away with one personal best and just missing another.
“It wasn’t the meet she wanted to have,” said Sweet Home Swim Club Coach Bruce Davis. “You don’t always get the best time, don’t always do what you want to do.”
It was Hager’s first time competing in the meet, which was one of four held regionally across the country. The Mt. Hood meet included teams from all over the West, including California.
“It’s like the entry-level national meet,” Davis said. “It’s kind of considered the first step of the national meets. It’s a fast meet.”
He said the competition included a lot of former college swimmers who didn’t have the times necessary to make the senior nationals.
“They allow just about anybody to go. There will be people who are 25 years old who will be there.
It’s usually pretty fast. It’s anyone other than true top-end elite swimmers.”
Hager’s top finish was in the 100 meter freestyle, in which she placed 30th out of 98 entries, after being seeded 66th. Her time of 59.68 was just shy of her personal best at that distance, Davis said.
Her time of 4:35.64 in the 400 Freestyle was a PR, good for 53rd place in a field of 80.
She was 56th in the 200 Freestyle, in 2:11.76 and 66th in the 50 Freestyle, in 28.00.
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Junior swimmers RJ Abbott and Chloe Tyler will represent Sweet Home Swim Club this week at the Oregon Swimming Western Zone Championships Aug. 7-10, also at Mt. Hood.
The Western Zone Age Group Championship meet is a four-day, long-course meet for some 700 athletes ages 14 and under, from 14 western states. It’s held in the first part of August. Athletes compete on one of 17 “all-star” teams from a dozen western states.
The two were among 12 swimmers in each age group who have been selected from the Oregon region.
Tyler, who will be a high school sophomore in the fall, will compete in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles, 100 and 200 backstroke and 200 Individual Medley.
“She’s dropped a lot of time this summer in some of her best events,” Davis said of Tyler, who is noticeably taller than she was last winter. “She’s had a really good summer. In the right event, she has a chance to do some good things.”
Abbott, 12, will swim the 50, 100, 200 and 400 freestyles, the 50 Breaststroke and the 50 Butterfly.
“RJ has just dropped a tone of time this year,” Davis said. “He went from making his first state cut last spring to making this zone team. He’s been dropping just big chunks of time. He trains really hard. He comes to practice all the time. He has a good attitude. I think he could have a good meet.
“It will just be interesting to see what actually happens. It’s a big deal.”
The competitions will be the final ones of the season for Sweet Home.
“We will take the rest of August off,” Davis said. “We’ll start the second week after school starts and we’ll have tryouts right after that.”
For more information on the club, visit http://www.teamunify.com/Home.jsp?team=orshsc.