In seeded heats that looked like races but weren't, Metro League girls swam against the clock for times that would qualify them for the following week's district meet. Six girls swam against the stopwatch for West Seattle High School; four girls wore the racing caps of Chief Sealth. The qualifying meet took place at the Helene Madison Pool in north Seattle.
For West Seattle fans, the most exciting non-race was the penultimate heat of the 100-yard backstroke. Freshman Mel Frey launched herself with a huge in-water, underwater start, surfaced in the lead, lengthened her lead through every turn, and finished first in the time of 1:09.94. Frey beat the qualifying standard by over four seconds.
Senior Christine Martin also gave West Seattle fans lots to shout about. Swimming in the top-seeded heats for both the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard breaststroke, Martin used powerful push-offs at every turn to swim half the length of the 25-yard pool under water. Her 1:06.93 in the 100 fly and 1:15.58 in the 100 breaststroke beat the respective qualifying times by more than 5.5 and 6.8 seconds. Martin reached the state meet in the 100-yard breaststroke as a sophomore.
Frey, too, qualified in a second individual event, the 50-yard freestyle. Her time of 27.51 in the top-seeded heat beat the standard by almost 1.2 seconds.
Frey (backstroke), Martin (breaststroke), Brenna Kajikawa (butterfly), and Jensen Perdue (freestyle) combined to advance West Seattle's 200-yard medley relay into the district meet as well.
Advancement to district competition for three Chief Sealth swimmers is pending a lane-filling protocol, which has not yet been conducted as of this writing. The leading candidate appears to be freshman Rachel Cermak, who swam in the same 100-yard breaststroke heat as Martin.
In a peculiar sequence in which district and state competitions take place before the regular season even starts, those swimmers who didn't qualify for the district meet are still looking forward to a full season of Metro League competition. Team captain Martin congratulates and thanks each of her West Seattle and Chief Sealth teammates for their efforts in this "preliminary" to the real season that begins in January. Training for the team competitions to come are sophomore Madeleine Anderson and freshman Ciera Nichols of WSHS, and Kelly Anderson (sr), Leilani Sommers (fr), and Shellee Boyd (fr) of Chief Sealth.
