Senior Jaine Macias played a huge role in helping the Port Angeles girls’ swim team finish second in the State 2A Swim Championship.
Macias won the 100-yard breaststroke with a school-record time, then she swam the breaststroke leg in the 200-yard team medley, teaming up with Kenzie Johnson, Felicia Che and Nadia Cole to win the event in another school-record time. These were the first-ever first-place finishes at State for Port Angeles swimming.
Macias was also the team captain, leading a very young team full of a surprising number of freshmen to a high place at State.
“It was a great way to go out,” she said. It was also somewhat her swan song in the pool, as she doesn’t have plans to swim in college.
As a senior leader, Macias said she had to step in occasionally to reel in the younger swimmers. These freshmen were part of her swim club and she said she knew they were going to “cream everyone” when they got to high school.
Asked if her young teammates could win the state title in the next year or two, she said, “They have a ton of potential if they use it and don’t become arrogant … and keep the great attitude they had this year.”
For good measure, Macias tacked on a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly and helped her 200 freestyle team (again, with Johnson, Cole and Che) to finish fourth.
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