Cougar swimmers battle in three-way

The Cougar swim and dive team battled North Montgomery and Covenant Christian Thursday night. The Cougar boys' defeated Covenant Christian 130-33, but fell nine points shy of a sweep for the night losing to North Montgomery 139-130.

The Cougar girls' fell to a strong North Montgomery squad 160-61, and were edged out by Covenant Christian in the last relay to fall by six points, 67-61.

"The times were great tonight, we had tons of season and lifetime best swims," Cougars head coach Tony Gray said. "I was really rooting for our girls. We only had seven girls active for the meet so the chips were stacked against us. The girls swam their hearts out but fell just shy. Covenant Christian had two relay teams in each event where we could only field one due to our limited numbers."

Gray also noted a change in the boys' lineup and laid the blame for the loss on himself.

"On the boys side I played with the line-up and swam a few of the boys in off events, so I put this loss on me not the kids," he said. "Our strength this year is our depth, but in a three-way meet we can only field two in each event so this didn't play to our boys strengths.

"The North Montgomery coaches have done a great job with their team they were fast and technically sound," Gray added.

The Cougars are preparing for the WCC Championships Saturday. Gray said the WCC will be a dog fight, with the championship going to the team that digs the deepest. He said he thought he boys side of the meet will probably come down to the final relay.

Winning on the night for the Cougars were Dane Gray in the 200-yard freestyle and was part of the 200-yard freestyle relay. Hunter Logan won the 50-yard freestyle and was part of the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Joe Lehr won the 100-yard backstroke, while Jared James and Nick Kaufman were part of the winning 200-yard freestyle relay team.