Sandy girls stay perfect in Northwest Oregon Conference duals

Sandy swimming coach Jamie Paul was confident her girls’ team would handle Wilsonville with ease on Thursday, and it did, 112-58. What Paul didn’t see coming was the breakout meet by the Sandy boys’ swimming team, which resulted in a 102-68 victory over the Wildcats.

“The boys had some really, really surprising wins. It was fantastic,” Paul said. “We wanted to win, and we thought we might win, but we blew them out of the water.”

The most unexpected Sandy win of the meet came when Adam Shull came from behind to win the 200 meter freestyle by less than two-tenths of a second.

“Adam was just chillin’,” Paul said. “Then in the last 25, he decided ‘actually, I’m going to win.’ It’s really exciting to see how hard these guys are working.”

Shull’s thriller lit a fire under the rest of the team. The Pioneer boys won seven of the eight individual events, and all three relays, to capture the win.

On the girls’ side, Sandy was equally dominant and likewise won all but one event. While most events were far from neck-and-neck, two races did come down to the wire, and both involved Amanda Snodgrass.

In the 50-meter freestyle, Snodgrass was a tad slow out of the gate and trailed by a meter or two at the turn. She urgently paddled back into it and touched the wall at what appeared to be the exact same moment as her opponent. It was so close that Snodgrass thought she lost and didn’t find out she had actually won by two-tenths of a second until after the meet was over.

Snodgrass was better off thinking she had lost, because she wanted to make up for it as the last leg of the Pioneers’ 200 freestyle relay. The Wildcats had about a two second head start when Snodgrass left the starting block for the anchor lap. Again, Snodgrass closed the gap and out-touched her Wilsonville counterpart by three-tenths of a second.

“I knew it was going to be close, but I didn’t think it would be that close,” Snodgrass said. “Those are tough races to be in.”

The Pioneers take on Liberty on Thursday afternoon.

Sandy winners

Girls

200 freestyle: Asha Gatchell (2:12.69)

200 individual medley: Hannah Gupton (2:28.40)

50 freestyle: Amanda Snodgrass (27.47)

100 butterfly: Hannah Gupton (1:05.34)

500 freestyle: Asha Gatchell (6:10.34)

100 backstroke: Amanda Snodgrass (1:12.75)

100 breaststroke: Zayna Salveter (1:22.91)

Boys

200 freestyle: Adam Shull (2:34.97)

200 individual medley: Kennedy Salveter (2:21.97)

50 freestyle: Kennedy Salveter (24.41)

100 butterfly: Nick Cheney (1:00.13)

100 freestyle: Dylan Wright (1:05.03)

500 freestyle: Kirk Thomson (6:37.56)

100 breaststroke: Nick Cheney (1:15.87)