DVC ‘s swimming and diving team is trying to sharpen their skills in preparation for the most important conference tournament of the season, the Big 8 Championship.

The Vikings have already faced many of the teams that will be at the Big 8 Championship on April 18, earlier at the Big 8 Invitational held on March 15.

“I felt like I was lacking in strength with my turns, I wasn’t hitting my turns very well but overall my first 75 in my 100-meter butterfly race was outstanding,” swimmer Montana Randall said.

Randall finished first in the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter Butterfly. For the Big 8 championship, he plans on working on his turns and improving his kick when he pushes off.

Many swimmers from DVC got their best times of the season at the invitational, giving the competition a scare before the championships. Santa Rosa College are the defending champions from last year. However, DVC has a better record this year.

“Finally we are getting back into the groove of things,” Michael Billey. “A lot of that hard work that we’ve been doing in practice is starting to slowly payoff.”

Billey went on to finish third in the 100 butterfly and third in the 200 butterfly.
To improve he hopes to get a little more motion with his butterfly, kind of stretching out his stroke, making sure he’s staying nice and long but efficiently moving forward instead of staying still.

Swimmer Riley Hagan finished first in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:46:66, which was his best time of the season so far and just three seconds slower than his personal best.

“Overall I felt I did well, but I definitely could use more training because the last half of the final lap I could feel myself start to slip and slow down in the water,” Hagan said. “It’s definitely more a matter of training than anything.”

To get ready for the next event he plans on warming up a little more, making sure his muscles are loose, getting his legs into the race faster and getting a head start on the race instead of lagging in the beginning and then turning on the jets at the end.

With the women’s team, Alyson Haylor was the top performer. Haylor finished second in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:03, hours after having practice for her synchronized swim team.

“I’m feeling a little tired, but I do play two sports, so I already had practice this morning, now the meet and then an additional practice after that,” Haylor said.

It was an extremely close race at the last flip turn with all swimmers flipping simultaneously in one line.

Haylor plans on working on holding a faster pace time in the race as a whole since she is more interested in distance swimming.

Another Women’s swimmer that showed promise at the meet is Taylor Henry, who finished first in the women’s 50-meter freestyle and second in the 200-meter butterfly.

Henry clocked in at 24:03 in the 50-meter freestyle, her best time this season in the 50-meter freestyle.

“Mentally I am ready to go out there and win its just a matter of executing,” Henry said.

The championship meet will be held Thursday April 18-20, from 10a.m. to 5p.m.