The Kentlake High girls swim team swam fast at the South Puget Sound League meet on Saturday, Oct. 23.
But the Falcons firmly believe that they can, in fact, swim faster than they did at Rogers High.
Kentlake led all four Kent School District programs at the meet, taking second place with 208 points. Mount Rainier, new to the SPSL North this fall, won the meet with 258 points while Kentridge delivered a solid third-place performance with 137 points. Kentwood (6th/107 points) and Kent-Meridian (15th/7) rounded out the local performances.
Kentlake’s Kyndal Phillips highlighted the meet for the Falcons, winning the 200-yard individual medley (2:15.06) and the 100 butterfly (1:01.19).
And though coach Kati Stanford thinks the Falcons relay teams will be even faster at the West Central District meet this weekend, they did pretty well at the league meet, as the 200-medley relay team of Phillips, Sarah Dougherty, Emily Tanasse and Taylor Bouffard finished second.
“In my opinion, league went very well,” Stanford said. “They worked very hard… and I’m proud of them. The girls were happy with what they did and excited and pleased with the outcome.”
In addition, the 200-free relay team of Phillips, Dougherty, Tanasse and Abby Swanson finished second while the 400-free relay team took fourth, with Swanson leading off, Annie Benoit the second leg, Mekena Eha third and Bouffard the anchor.
“Our relay teams that we put together, we dropped time and we moved up in placement,” Tanasse said. “I thought girls individually had some pretty good swims.”
Benoit, for example, took third in the 200 free and second in the 500 free.
Tanasse finished fifth in the 50 free and second in the 100 free while Swanson picked up points with a fifth place finish in the 200 free and 10th in the 100 free while Bouffard touched the wall in fourth place in the 50 free.
Eha and Dougherty also both added top eight finishes in individual events for the Falcons.
“We did not expect to get second,” Tanasse said. “I think they did better than expected.”
For Kentridge, third proved to be the theme of the day. Along with placing third as a team, the Chargers also had two individual third-place finishes and two relay teams finish in third. State veteran Emily Mohr led the way for the Chargers, nabbing the team’s highest finish of the day by taking second in the 50 free after clocking out in 24.99. Mohr added a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly (1:03.85). Meanwhile, Emily Shonka grabbed a third-place finish in the 200 IM (2:22.96) and a fourth in the 100 free (56.96). Kentridge’s 200-yard medley relay team (Mohr, Shonka, Giuliana Chilczuk and Kristen Sparkmen) and its 400-free relay team (Mohr, Abby Allen, Taylor Childress and Bella Chilczuk) also brought home third-place finishes.
It wasn’t a bad meet for Kentwood, either, which finished sixth as a team, explained coach Sharon Wright in an e-mail.
“We had some great swims and some okay swims,” Sharon Wright said. “I had quite a few girls out due to illness that was hard for them in regards to training. Even with that they swam well. We have placed between fifth and sixth at this meet for the last three years so we were right where we usually are at this time of the year.”
The Conquerors’ 200 medley relay team finished eighth
Marissa Dyrdahl was sixth while Erica Wright was eighth in the 50 free.
Dyrdahl also finished fifth in the 100 fly while Avalon Lanz and Maggie Molloy finished in 10th and 11th, respectively for the Conks.
Paige Morris was fifth in the 100 free while Lanz, who is a freshman, was seventh in the 500 free with teammate Katie Nelson right behind her in eighth.
Morris was the lead off swimmer for Kentwood’s fourth place 200 free relay team, with Kelly Phillips second, Erica Wright swimming the third leg and Dyrdahl anchoring as it earned a district qualifying time.
The Conquerors’ 400 free relay team finished in seventh to cap off the meet.
Looking forward to the district meet, Sharon Wright said, “this is a big week for us.”
“We hope that some of our girls qualify to swim again on Saturday and they swim fast enough to allocate to state,” she said. “We are also looking to allocate two relays to state but we have to swim fast both days to make that happen.”
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