Marshfield had a great first day at the Midwestern League swimming championships at Willamalane Pool in Springfield on Friday.

“The kids had great swims,” said Pirate coach Kathe Stufflebean. “It will be really fun to see what they do tomorrow.”

The finals for the meet, which will determine all team scoring, as well as which swimmers will advance to state.

Kacy Neal is seeded first in the 200 freestyle and second in the 500 freestyle after the preliminaries, while Garrett Swafford qualified first in the 200 individual medley.

Marshfield’s 200 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay, both including Neal, Swafford, Zach Flathers and Coleman Metzler, each are seeded second.

The winners of each event, plus those who are among the next six fastest in all the district meets, will advance to the state meet in Gresham.

Stufflebean was excited to see her team’s improvement.

“We had kids drop a ton of time,” she said. “They’re swimming really well.”

Brealan Mosieur improved from 1:11 to 1:05 in the 100 butterfly to advance to the final, while Metzler reached the final in both the 50 and 100 freestyle and Justin Jones advanced in the 100 freestyle.

Among the girls, Jana Sadler dropped two seconds in the 100 breaststroke, where she is seeded second, and should have a good race in the final today.

Class 4A-3A-2A-1A

North Bend’s Rachel Heaney and Matt Johnson qualified first in two events each on the first day of the District 4 meet at Southern Oregon University.

Heaney qualified first in the 200 and 500 freestyle races for North Bend. In the longer race, the Bulldogs had four of the top five with Kelli Kronsberg second, Emily Hepworth fourth and Amy Walker fifth.

Sarah Brown qualified first in the 100 butterfly.

Johnson was first in the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke for North Bend’s boys, while Eprhaim Morris qualified first in the 200 individual medley and James Verger was first in the 500 freestyle.