Wave Ryders pile up medals at meet

The Wave Ryders Swim club racked up 160 medals Oct. 17-18 at the Fall Frenzy swim meet at The Wave — nearly twice as many as the second-place team from Missoula.

"The kids had fun and accomplished their goals," Wave Ryders coach Deidre Loyda said. "We had a lot of personal-best times."

In fact, 86 percent of the team's swims were personal bests.

The Wave Ryders club posted 96 swims that qualified for state and will send 16 swimmers to the meet.

Jessica Loyda put together a strong day of swimming, claiming the top spot in eight events for girls age 9-10.

Kit Anderson was tough to beat in the pool for girls 8-and-under. She won the 25-yard freestyle in a time of 16.61.

Nikki Krueger won gold in the 50-yard breaststroke for girls age 9-10, and Emily Sullivan found the podium in 12 events for girls age 11-12 — winning gold in breaststroke.

Joseph Potkonjak posted top times as well, winning the 200-yard freestyle in 2:26.75 and the 1,000-yard freestyle in 14:00.10. Potkonjak piled up five first-place finishes.

Joshua Loyda was nearly unstoppable in the pool, taking 12 first-place finishes in the boys 13-14 age group, while Jordan Loyda took home eight gold medals in the boys 15-18 age group.

Deidre Loyda said the event garnered a lot of community support and that Dairy Queen restaurants from Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Bigfork offered a free treat for any swimmer who captured an unfortunate DQ in a race.