Columbia Falls Swim Team earns third at state meet

The Columbia Falls swim team earned third place at the state swim meet in Lewistown last weekend as it wrapped up the summer season in style, edging rival Bitterroot for the third spot.

"We had an awesome showing at state," coach Price Richardson said. "We ended up in third place in the toughest division, beating out rival Bitterroot by five points. It was a total combined effort to score that high as a team considering we took just over half the swimmers that Bitterroot took to state. The intermediate boys and girls had outstanding relay teams."

According to Richardson, the boys beat state records in both relays, earning their name on the medley relay record by four seconds. The girls won the free relay and finished second in the medley. He said that there were "tons of other truly outstanding swims," some of which were from Karyssa Nelson (100 IM, 25 Free, 50 Free), Hanna Ronish (200 IM, 100 Fly), Lexie Bartkoski (200 IM, 50 Free, 50 Fly), Kyle Boyd (200 IM, 50 Fly), Michael Baiar (50 Free, 100 Free, 50 Fly), Jon Riffey (200 IM, 50 Fly, 100 Fly), Michael Scaccia (100 Breast), Katie Newton (100 Breast), Bria Ward (100 Free), Dana Labuda (100 Free, 400 Free), Eric Boyd (100 Back), Colter Norick (50 Fly), Kelsea Kimmerly (400 Free) and Jessica Baiar (50 Fly).

"We had one state championship swim from Nathan Donner in the 400 Free, getting a best time of the year and dropping a total of 45 seconds from the first meet this year. That's outstanding. I've never seen that kind of improvement in a race in just an eight-week season," Richardson said.

It was Donner's first individual state championship.

Richardson said that six swimmers graduated from the federation this year as the team and coaches will be saying good-bye to Nate Donner, Kyle Boyd, Alex Riffey, Michelle Cronquist, Dana Labuda and Caitlin Woods on Wednesday at the team's annual awards banquet.

"They all had a great year and it was awesome that we could send them off by winning a trophy at state for the first time in several years," Richardson said.

Here are results from the meet:

Class AA final

team standings:

1) Malta 654.50

2) Sidney 630.50

3) Columbia Falls 441.50

4) Bitterroot 436

5) Shelby 313.50

Relay and individual results

(Columbia Falls swimmers):

Boys 8 & Under 100 Yard Freestyle Relay

9, CF Swim Team 'A' (Ronish, Nic 8, Norick, Colin 6, Gargasz, Sam 6, Babcock, Colton 7), 1:37.08.

Boys 11-12 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

10, CF Swim Team 'A' (Newton, Hunter 11, Webber, RJ 12, Role, Garett 10, Nelson, Dalton 11), 2:45.19.

Boys 13-14 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

2, CF Swim Team 'A' (Boyd, Scott 13, Boyd, Eric 13, Riffey, Jon 13, Baiar, Michael 13),1:45.88.

Girls 13-14 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

1, CF Swim Team 'A' (Bartkoski, Lexie 13, Potter, Elena 12, Burns, Tianna 13, Ward, Bria 12), 1:57.38.

Men 15-19 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

3, CF Swim Team 'A' (Boyd, Kyle 17, Newton, Alan 16, Bartkoski, Weston 16, Donner, Nathan 16), 1:42.74.

Women 15-19 200 Yard Freestyle Relay

3, CF Swim Team 'A' (Cronquist, Michelle 16, Kimerly, Kelsea 17, Role, Taylor 16, Labuda, Dana 16), 1:56.24.

Boys 8 & Under 100 Yard IM

7, Babcock, Colton, 1:53.37.

Girls 8 & Under 100 Yard IM

3, Nelson, Karyssa, 1:43.66.

Boys 9-10 100 Yard IM

17, Ronish, Zac, 1:50.29. 18, Norick, Colter, 2:01.35.

Boys 11-12 200 Yard IM

19, Role, Garett, 4:13.17.

Boys 13-14 200 Yard IM

6, Riffey, Jon, 2:44.79

Girls 13-14 200 Yard IM

4, Bartkoski, Lexie, 2:44.45. 8, Piper, Katelynn, 2:51.69. 13, Newton, Katie, 3:03.22.15, Newton, Kristi, 3:06.71.

Men 15-19 200 Yard IM

2, Boyd, Kyle, 2:20.81. 9, Newton, Alan, 2:33.84. 14, Riffey, Alex, 2:42.45.

Women 15-19 200 Yard IM

19, Woods, Caitlin, 3:28.92.

Girls 13-14 50 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 3, Bartkoski, Lexie, 29.17. 4, Ward, Bria, 29.22.

Men 15-19 50 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 11, Bartkoski, Weston, 26.97. 12, Donner, Nathan, 27.13.

Women 15-19 50 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 7, Cronquist, Michelle, 28.27. 9, Role, Taylor, 29.23.

Boys 8 & Under 25 Yard Breaststroke

9, Babcock, Colton, 25.89.

Boys 13-14 100 Yard Breaststroke

(B - Final) 8, Scaccia, Michael, 1:22.62. 10, Labuda, Nate, 1:23.35. 12, Erickson, Vincent, 1:28.04.

Girls 13-14 100 Yard Breaststroke

(A - Final) 9, Newton, Katie, 1:25.65. 10, Burns, Tianna, 1:26.31.

Men 15-19 100 Yard Breaststroke

10, Newton, Alan, 1:15.95.

Women 15-19 100 Yard Breaststroke

(A - Final) 4, Labuda, Dana, 1:22.41.

Girls 8 & Under 50 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 3, Nelson, Karyssa, 37.94.

Boys 13-14 100 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 3, Baiar, Michael, 56.97. 4, Boyd, Scott, 59.02. 8, Boyd, Eric, 1:03.10.

Girls 13-14 100 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 3, Ward, Bria, 1:05.02. 8, Burns, Tianna, 1:07.01.

Men 15-19 100 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 8, Donner, Nathan, 58.74. 9, Bartkoski, Weston, 59.00.

Women 15-19 100 Yard Freestyle

(A - Final) 3, Labuda, Dana, 1:02.53. 9, Kimerly, Kelsea, 1:07.50.

Boys 13-14 100 Yard Backstroke

(A - Final) 2, Boyd, Scott, 1:07.86. 7, Boyd, Eric, 1:13.90. 12, Erickson, Vincent, 1:25.54.

Girls 13-14 100 Yard Backstroke

(A - Final) 4, Ward, Bria, 1:17.62. 5, Burns, Tianna, 1:19.77. 12, Potter, Keri, 1:38.18.

Men 15-19 100 Yard Backstroke

(A - Final) 3, Boyd, Kyle, 1:04.99. 9, Newton, Alan, 1:10.28.

Boys 9-10 50 Yard Butterfly

(A - Final) 8, Norick, Colter, 47.21.

Girls 11-12 50 Yard Butterfly

(A - Final) 7, Baiar, Jessica, 36.10.

Boys 13-14 50 Yard Butterfly

(A - Final) 2, Baiar, Michael, 28.06. 3, Riffey, Jon, 30.24.

Girls 13-14 50 Yard Butterfly

(A - Final) 4, Bartkoski, Lexie, 32.94. 5, Potter, Elena, 33.11. 7, Ronish, Hanna, 33.30.

Men 15-19 50 Yard Butterfly

(A - Final) 3, Boyd, Kyle, 27.13. 11, Riffey, Alex, 29.84. 12, Bartkoski, Weston, 30.32.

Women 15-19 50 Yard Butterfly

(A - Final) 7, Cronquist, Michelle, 30.13.

Men 15-19 400 Yard Freestyle

1, Donner, Nathan, 4:32.91. 10, Donner, Benjamin, 5:11.21.

Women 15-19 400 Yard Freestyle

5, Labuda, Dana, 5:08.32. 8, Kimerly, Kelsea, 5:26.47. 20, Woods, Caitlin, 6:48.10.

Boys 11-12 200 Yard Medley Relay

10, CF Swim Team 'A' (Gargasz, Max 10, Newton, Hunter 11, Nelson, Dalton 11, Webber, RJ 12), 3:08.43.

Boys 13-14 200 Yard Medley Relay

1, CF Swim Team 'A' (Boyd, Scott 13, Labuda, Nate 13, Baiar, Michael 13, Riffey, Jon 13), 2:00.19.

Girls 13-14 200 Yard Medley Relay

2, CF Swim Team 'A' (Ward, Bria 12, Burns, Tianna 13, Ronish, Hanna 14, Potter, Elena 12), 2:16.95.

Men 15-19 200 Yard Medley Relay

4, CF Swim Team 'A' (Boyd, Kyle 17, Newton, Alan 16, Bartkoski, Weston 16, Donner, Nathan 16), 1:56.75.

Women 15-19 200 Yard Medley Relay

3, CF Swim Team 'A' (Labuda, Dana 16, Kimerly, Kelsea 17, Cronquist, Michelle 16, Role, Taylor 16)

Boys 13-14 100 Yard Butterfly

2, Riffey, Jon, 1:08.07.

Girls 13-14 100 Yard Butterfly

4, Potter, Elena, 1:18.41.16, Potter, Keri, 1:44.06.

Men 15-19 100 Yard Butterfly

8, Donner, Benjamin, 1:21.33.

Women 15-19 100 Yard Butterfly

6, Cronquist, Michelle, 1:17.24.