FEDERAL WAY--The Mount Rainier High School girls swimming team found out that it's all right to share -- at least with Kentlake.
The Rams of Des Moines knotted the Falcons for third place at the state Class 4A meet Saturday, Nov. 12 after also tying them during the regular season. The two teams racked up 123 points apiece at state, leaving them behind only the 147 of Stadium and the 202 of Skyline.
"I'm happy to share with Kentlake because they swim very well," said Mount Rainier head coach Ben Bruce of the South Puget Sound League North Division rival team. "We were scoring up the meet and that gave us fourth. It was a total shock to get third. It was pretty shaky."
Finishing close on the heels of the Rams in fifth place was Issaquah with 119 points. Mount Rainier finished fifth at last year's state meet.
"We're just glad, all things considered," said Bruce, who swam for the Rams' boys team in 2005.
Swimming with the grief of losing "a member of our family"
As well as the Rams did in the meet held at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, they were hurting after finding out Jayme Thomas, a member of last year's team, had passed away.
"It was a tough week because of that loss," said Bruce. "The memorial service was today, and a lot of the girls wanted to go, but we had this. We lost a member of our family."
Results
Mount Rainier started off strong, however, taking second place in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:49.44 behind the 1:47.22 clocking of Skyline.
Sophomore sensation Megan Kawaguchi snagged two individual second place finishes.
She won the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:05.77 behind Lisa Bratton of Richland with a 2:03.70 time. Kawaguchi also took second in the 100 backstroke with a time of 55.65 behind the 54.60 of Skyline's Katie Kinnear, who won the overall Swimmer of the Meet award. Kawaguchi swam on the 200 medley relay with Rachel Webster, Jackie Beal and Courtney Larson.
Larson was third in 25.11 in the 50 free consolation final for 11th overall and Beal came in seventh in the 100 butterfly consolation race in 25.11 for 15th overall and eighth in the 100 back consolation finals in 1:02.01 for 16th overall.
Webster took fourth in the 100 breaststroke consolation race in 1:10.41 for 12th overall and Anna Burdine came in right behind her in fifth in the race and 13th overall with her time of 1:10.72.
Mount Rainier was second in the 200 free relay consolation event for 10th overall with its time of 1:43.19. The Rams were third in the 400 free relay consolation race for 11th place overall. They posted a time of 3:41.27.
The boys swimming and diving tryouts were set for Monday with Bruce trading places to become an assistant to his girls assistant Chris Veraya.
Class 3A meet
The diving event carried the Kennedy Catholic girls swimming team to a ninth-place finish at the Class 3A meet that was held starting at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 12.
Paige Greely took first place with a total score of 404.00 points for the Lancers in that event, ahead of the 381.30 total of Mercer Island's Meg Lindsay.
Taking a close third for JFK was Ashley Knox with a total of 380.70.
Ashley Knox is a West Seattle resident and the younger sister of Amanda Knox.
Knox received a big round of applause as she approached the awards stand and responded with a big grin.
Charlotte Dittmar of the Lancers took seventh place with a total of 325.30 points.
Greely and Dittmar are seniors and Knox is a junior. Greely scored 20 points for her first place finish, while Knox scored 16 and Dittmar 12. That totaled 48 points for the Lancers in one event, out of the 98 JFK scored overall.
Kennedy sophomore Vanessa Moffatt took sixth in the 200 freestyle with her time of 1:57.89 for 13 points and later took sixth in the 500 free in 5:11.97 for another 13 points.
The Kennedy Catholic foursome of Audrey Griggs, Natalie Mutter, Anna Luksetich and Moffatt finished 10th in the 400 free relay in 3:50.44 and the Lancers took 12th in the 200 free relay in 1:46.60 with Griggs, Shaelanna White, Luksetich and Moffatt.
