The sound of a heart beat. One beat. Buh-duh. That is it. That much time-buh-duh- separated Decatur senior swimmer, Tommy Cunningham, from a first place finish in the 100 yard freestyle state final of the 4A boys swimming and diving championships at the Weyerhaueser King County Acquatics Center pool in Federal Way Feb. 16. "I couldn't quite see him the last 25 yards," said Cunningham. "I just stuck my head in the water and tried to touch the wall first. It wasn't the result I wanted." Cunningham was beat by Seth Parker of Central Kitsap, 46.90 to 47.03. "He's pretty down after the 100," said Russ Neal, Gators head swim coach. "He really wanted that." Cunningham was down, but certainly not out, as he then showed maybe more heart at doing something than winning an individual race of his ever could accomplish. As Cunningham was talking afterward about this race, explaining that it was his accountability for losing the 100 free, "It's one of those races you have to go all out for," Cunningham was saying. "It comes down to who wants it more." Then, he suddenly said, "Excuse me. I need to do something." And Cunningham did go do something, that took heart. He went to watch a single file line of swimmers doing the Walk Of Champions (top eight swimmers of a race do 'the walk')  before the 100 breaststroke race, which, in this case, was event 11. And, one of those swimmers was his friend from Mount Tahoma High School, Cole Scarborough. As far as can be remembered, no one else did anything more than maybe a bunch of swimmer friends altogether putting up hands in a 'London Bridges' way as their swimmer walked the Walk of Champions walk before going to their swim block for a given finals race's start at state this year. Cunningham did things different, he put his hand out as Scarborough was walking toward him and Scarborough took it and shaked it. Scarborough then went to the blocks, seeded sixth, in his race. Sixth! That means Scarborough took sixth place in the preliminaries. Granted, he won state in the event last year and was therefore the defending champion, but still, he was not as fast as five other swimmers coming in to the final of the 100 breast this year. Scarborough then went on to barely take first place, by less than a quarter second, over Cody Rodgers of Richland. Congratulations, Cole! Another title for you. That was something wasn't it? Cunningham lost his race, was visibly down after it. But then Cunningham got after it. He went out there and made sure he would support a friend, despite Cunningham's senior dream of winning a state title wisped away like dandelion seeds blown into the wind. Cunningham would make that move, that handshake. Did Scarborough think that Cunningham's support right before Scarborough raced the final help? "I love Tommy," said Scarborough. "He is one of the best friends you can have. Friends like that make a world of  difference." Could good support before a race maybe mean a first place instead of a fifth or sixth? Afterall, Cole, you were sixth seeded for that 100 breast final. And, of all 12 finals races, relays included, that was by far the biggest jump in placement out of any swimmer at state, sixth seeded to first place. "Support is definitely good, it makes a big difference," said Scarborough, who, incidentally, swims with Cunningham, not in high school, of course, since Mount Tahoma is in Tacoma, but they both swim together on the same King swim team based out of Federal Way, under year-round coach, Sean Hutchinson. "We've been friends for quite a while," said Cunningham. "He swims on King too. We swim together every day." Cunningham deserved better. 13 hundredths of a second from being a state champion! "Yeah," said Scarborough, pausing, sighing. "Yeah, Tommy really did deserve that race." But life is like that. One does not always get what they deserve. But Cunningham, for that effort, in the midst of his losing a state championship pain, deserves what he got. And that's honorable mention for the honor and support he showed Scarborough including suddenly raising his friend's hand high with his draped with a blue and white and red Mount Tahoma towel shrouding both's hands after Scarborough got his first-place medal on the podium. A honorable thing to do. Red, white, and, blue. Hmm. In the face of defeat for himself, it showed what american patriotism and fighting for others is really about with that act by Cunningham. The move of a champion. The loss will be good for Cunningham. "This (loss in 100 free) makes me want to go a lot faster," said Cunningham. "It gave me some hunger to come back and train harder." Cunningham also fired off the blocks for fourth place in the 200 free relay in 1:44.85. Cunningham will likely be swimming for a D-1 school in college. He is going to work hard from now until signing time coming up shortly. "I'm keeping my options open," said Cunningham. "Division 1 schools sign in April." Until then then? "I'm trying to get a lot faster for college," he said. Besides Cunningham, some notable fast effort came from the Federal Way Eagle's Cameron Moak, who took seventh place in the 100 free in 48.85 and eighth in the 50 free in 22.29. Extra, extra, here all about this too. The Eagles also got the 4A state academic champion award for having the highest team grade point average under head coach, Carla Boone, and, assistant, Tammy Taylor. For the second year in a row!

3.73 was better than all the 90 something 4A schools in the state of Washington, so that's an impressive something in the midst of all the swimming race somethings. Not only were the Eagles the best g.p.a. overall in 4A but others too. "We had the highest g.p.a. of all of them (all classifications, including 3A, 2A, 1A/B)," said Boone, smiling. "I did check that out " Justin Willis was on the Federal Way Eagles 200 medley relay team that took 18th place overall, two places away from qualifying for the finals day of being able to swim in the consolation final race in the event. Willis is a senior who is one of two Eagles with a current 4.0 g.p.a. "Federal Way gets a lot of bad press but this is the second year in row we have got the academic championship," said Willis, not noting but it's true. Twice a year and a half ago-fall of 2006- during sporting events at Federal Way Stadium, once for a soccer game, and, once, in the Eagles gym, for a volleyball match, the entire building was locked down for 30-45 minutes because of a gunman outside that was not known to be from the high school but still, it was that kind of press for the school area. But this is good press, kudos for the Eagles, the city school gets a nice honor here, led by the boys swimming team. "We just really believe that they (FW swimmers) are students first, athletes, second," said Boone. "It takes a lot of discipline to swim. So they are going to bring that same discipline to the classroom. The leaders in the classroom are on the swim team." For Todd Beamer, Kyle Christensen was eighth in the consolation finals of the 200 Individual Medley in 2:06.80. He also swam at state in the 100 butterfly but did not qualify for the second day for that event. "I got to state and got to the second day, that was my goal," said Christensen. Decatur's Robert Sobus was fifth in the 200 free consolation finals in 1:50.17. He as also a part of the Gators third place finish in the 200 free relay, along with teammates, Zack Klein, Tanner Brotherton, Sean Sobus, in 1:32.21. Also, Federal Way's team of Brian Shaw, Shane Elliott, Matt Christopher, and, Moak, took eighth in the consolation final of the 200 free. The Todd Beamer Titans relay team of Christensen, Kyle Cassinerio, Costner McKenzie, and, Darin Panazuik, made it to state in the 200 medley but did not qualify for the second day. A In diving, junior Tommy Fraychineaud took fourth out of 16 state divers, with sophomore teammate, Ludomir Wanot, 10th. Fraychineaud has been diving for a long time and said his teaching is 'good,' which coincidentally is from his dad, John. Tommy was the SPSL and district champion coming into state. "I had a different first day diving," said Fraychineaud. "It didn't go very well. I did better today with more people watching. I was less nervous because I knew I wasn't going to win."