Until last Thursday afternoon, it had been six years since the Kentwood High girls swim team won the South Puget Sound League North Division title.
The Conquerors finally reached the pinnacle of the North, and did so with a family flare.
Under the watchful eye of coach Sharon Wright, Kentwood upended Tahoma 170-60 at the Covington Aquatic Center. Wright’s husband, Dave, coaches the Bears. Adding to the family intrigue is the fact that the Wright’s daughter, Erica, is one of Kentwood’s top swimmers.
“It’s fun to beat him because then we have bragging rights at home,” said Erica, who took second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:33.25.
The win was hardly about just family bragging rights. In fact, it was more about delivering quality times, Dave Wright said.
“(At the dinner table tonight we’ll talk about) how Erica did first and second, how fast all the girls swam,” Dave noted. “Really, the score doesn’t matter to us. What matters is how fast our girls swam today. We’ve got to focus on the best times.”
On Thursday, Kentwood had plenty of them on the way to winning its first SPSL North girls swimming title since 2003. In fact, the Conquerors won 10 different events. Maggie Molloy led the way with wins in the 100 free (1:00.77) and the 200 IM (2:27.64). Adding wins for the Conquerors in individual events were: Kelly Phillips in the 200 free (2:14.13); Shannelle Cayetano in the 50 free (25.87); Marissa Dyrdahl in the 100 butterfly (1:09.61) and diver Jordan Johnson (186.75 points). The Conquerors also made a clean sweep in the relays, taking the 200-yard medley relay (Cayetano, Dyrdahl, Lindsey Krause and Erika Panzer) with a time of 2:02.76, adding a win in the 200-yard freestyle (Cayetano, Dyrdahl, Molloy and Panzer) with a time of 1:47.60 and topping off the effort with a victory in the 400-yard freestyle relay (Cayetano, Dyrdahl, Molloy and Panzer).
However, the biggest performance of the meet for Kentwood came from Krause, who won the breaststroke with a season-best and district-qualifying time of 1:16.78. The time is a full two seconds better than her previous best.
In addition, Kentwood’s Amy Nelson qualified for the league meet (Oct. 23 at the Covington Aquatic Center) in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:21.91.
Tahoma picked up a pair of wins in the meet, those coming in the 500 free (Tori Bauers/6:00.73) and in the 100-yard backstroke (Anna Pierre/1:09.26)
Coming into the season, Kentridge and Kentlake were considered the favorites to win the North crown. Kentwood knocked off Kentridge to open the season, then did the same to Kentlake the following week.
“Winning the league title was not necessarily a goal walking into the season, but once we won against Kentridge and beat Kentlake, all of a sudden, it became a goal,” said Sharon Wright.
• ALSO: Kentlake held off Kentridge last Friday, 89-85. Kentlake star Chelsea Bailey delivered a state-qualifying time of 2:10.70 in the 200 IM. If Bailey can qualify for state in the 50 free, she will earn ironwoman status (qualifying for state in all the individual events) for the third year in a row. Kentlake’s Emily Tanasse also posted a state-qualifying time, doing so in the 100 butterfly after touching out in 1:00.94.
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