Cats swimmers earn fourth at state, girls fifth
Sam Pierce swims his way to a fourth place finish in the 200 backstroke at the state swim meet in Bozeman Saturday. (Michelle Albin photo)
A number of strong individual finishes helped push the Wildcats swim team to a fourth-place finish at the state swim meet in Bozeman over the weekend while the Columbia Falls girls finished fifth.
Russell Albin led the Cats with a pair of third-place finishes at the meet, finishing the 50 freestyle in 24.26 seconds and the 100 butterfly in 59.62 seconds.
Sam Pierce was third in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.72 seconds and fourth in the 100 backstroke at 1:07.42.
Conner Cheff picked up a pair of fourth-place finishes with a time of 2:32.74 in the 200 individual medley and 1:12.37 in the 100 breaststroke.
Peyton Malmberg was third in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:10.08 and fifth in the 100 freestyle at 55.78 seconds while James Role was sixth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:18.27.
The 400 freestyle relay team of Albin, Role, Malmberg and Pierce was second with a time of 3:46.92.
In girls action, Emerald Tempin earned a pair of fourth place finishes, with a time of 6:29.74 in the 500 freestyle and 2:42.70 in the 200 individual medley.
Jayna Moultray was sixth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:37.64.
The boys finished with 38 points to finish behind Billings Central (63), Havre (63) and Hardin (52).
The girls seven points put them behind Whitefish (91), Billings Central (88), Hardin (49) and Havre (19).