Swim team finishes season fifth at state

The Columbia Falls Swim Team had two individual state champions, one relay championship and finished fifth overall at the 2005 State swim meet held in Chinook.

Michael Baiar and Scott Boyd took home individual honors, with Baiar winning the 11-12-year-old 50 freestyle and the 11-12-year-old 50 butterfly. Winning those two events made him the 11-12-year-old top point scorer as well.

Scott Boyd placed first in the 11-12-year-old 50 backstroke and both boys also were members of the first-place 11-12-year-old boys medley. Nathan Labuda and Eric Boyd were the other members.

Coach Price Richardson was very pleased with the meet and praised his team's performance.

"We had a great meet this weekend," he said. "We ended up with fifth place, but that definitely doesn't do our performance at state justice. We had awesome swims by everybody, with multiple people dropping nine to 10 seconds in their races."

Richardson said that Baiar's performance was especially great.

"I was most impressed with our Junior Boy, Michael Baiar, who hadn't gotten a point all year, then had three amazing races and ended up with high point of the meet, with first-place in the 50 free and 50 fly and second place in the 100 free," he said. "Our other first place finisher was Scott Boyd in the 50 back."

Richardson was pleased with how the season ended up and said that all swimmers should be proud of their efforts throughout the year.

Anyone interested in swimming for the team next summer can contact Ron Newton at (406)387-5024.

The team will be holding its end of the year picnic at Pinewood Park today.

Further meet results are not yet available.