Glacier, Flathead swimmers blaze through state prelims

by Fritz Neighbor Daily Inter Lake
| February 14, 2020 1:10 AM

GREAT FALLS – The preliminaries are over at the Montana State Swimming Championships and Kalispell has all sorts of finalists.

Glacier and Flathead put 10 of their 12 relays into Saturday’s action. On top of that, 11 swimmers will compete in a total of 17 individual events.

Flathead sophomore Lily Milner swam the fastest times in the 100 freestyle and the 100 backstroke Friday, with Glacier senior Caroline Dye grabbing the fourth seed in both races.

Milner’s times were 52.53 seconds in the free – Dye came in at 55.33 – and 58.49 in the backstroke.

Glacier’s Eden Flake set herself up for the 50 free and the 100 butterfly with the No. 3 prelim time in one and the second-best time in the other (1:00.04).

Other top times came from Flathead’s Kailey Schrader (third in the 100 breastroke) and Hannah Pieri (11th in the 200 individual medley).

Among the boys swimmers, Ayden Strobbe-Berry (seeded eighth in the 100 free and 10th in the 50 free) and Gus DeSouza (eighth in the 200 IM, 12th in the 100 breaststroke) shined the brightest for Flathead. Glacier’s Derek Smith (11th, 100 back), Xander Stout (11th, 100 fly) and Drew Bouda (ninth in the 500 free, 12th in the 200 free) also moved into Saturday’s finals.

The top relays are, for Glacier: the girls’ 400 and 200 freestyle, which are seeded third and sixth. Flathead’s boys’ 400 freestyle is seeded sixth and its 200 freestyle is seeded fifth.