UNIVERSITY PLACE — Port Angeles finished fourth as a team at the District 3 swim and dive championships and will send all three relay teams to state, while individually, the Roughriders’ Lynzee Reid and Sequim’s Annie Ellefson and Ava Shinkle had great meets.
Reid was the top individual finisher of any girl from the Olympic Peninsula, coming in second at district in the diving competition.
“Every single one of our swimmers stepped up and earned points in their individual events,” said Port Angeles coach Sally Cole. “That collective effort made all the difference. It was truly a team performance from start to finish.”
Port Angeles was just 10 points shy of third, finishing with 215 points. Bainbridge won the meet with 581 points, while North Kitsap had 309 and Steilacoom 225. Sequim was ninth with 99 points and East Jefferson 13th with 37.
All eight of the Port Angeles swimmers contributed points. Full qualifiers to state will be determined later this week as there are often wild card qualifiers added.
In the diving competition, Reid was a close second. She finished with 260.85 points to 272.6 for district champion Audrey Smith of Steilacoom. No other diver had more than 200 points. Reid also contributed the following day to two of the Riders’ relay teams that qualified for state. She also finished sixth in the 100 backstroke with a time 1 minute, 6.44 seconds, three seconds off her previous best.
Port Angeles’ 400 freestyle relay team of Reid, Amayah Nelson, Anaya Tejeda and Lizzy Shaw came in third with a time of 4:07.7.
The next top Olympic Peninsula finish was third in the 100 breaststroke by Ellefson with a time of 1:12.84. Ellefson also finished fifth in the 100 freestyle in a time of 1:00.15, qualifying for state in both events.
Sequim’s Shinkle also had a solid meet, coming in fifth in the 200 individual medley (2:19.04), cutting a whopping eight seconds off her previous best. She was also sixth in the 100 butterfly (1:03.69), qualifying for state in two events.
In the 200 freestyle, Port Angeles’ Nelson qualified for state, coming in fifth overall and dropping 5½ seconds off her previous best with a time of 2:09.87. Nelson also qualified for state in the 500 freestyle, finishing seventh with a time of 5:54.61.
Port Angeles’ Chloe Kay-Sanders also qualified for state in the 100 butterfly, finishing 10th with a time of 1:11.01.
The Riders will send their 200 freestyle relay of Tejeda, Shaw, Mia Francis and Nelson to state after a fourth-place finish time of 1:54.98. All four swimmers swam personal-best times.
Finally, the Riders will send its 200-yard medley relay team to state with a fifth-place finish. The team of Reid, Francis, Kay-Sanders and Shaw had a time of 2:07.7. Sequim’s foursome of Naomi Beglyakov, Ellefson, Shinkle and Holland Sol was right behind in sixth at 2:09.97, dropping four seconds of their previous best in the prelims and another three in the finals. Sequim’s team will also head to state.
In the 200 freestyle, Francis cut three seconds in prelims and placed ninth with a time of 2:20.45. One of Port Angeles’ most dramatic races came from Lucy Townsend, who trailed a Washington High swimmer by six seconds entering the final 50 yards. Townsend surged in the final stretch, closing in 34.15 seconds to out-touch her opponent by 0.28 and claim 10th place with a time of 2:22.23.
Tejeda placed 10th in the 200 individual medley, 2:37.18, trimming three seconds from her previous best. Ellie Karjalainen added a 12th-place finish, and Shaw placed 13th in the 50 freestyle.
In the 100 butterfly, Tejeda set personal bests in both prelims and finals to finish 12th. Her finals time was 1:14.48. Nelson and Townsend both recorded personal bests in the 500 freestyle with Nelson dropping 16 seconds for seventh (5:54.61), and Townsend matching the feat with a 10th-place finish at 6:19.08.
In the 100 breaststroke, Francis and Ellie Karjalainen both recorded season bests. Francis trailed after the first 50 by just over a second but surged in the final lap to edge a Bainbridge Island swimmer by 0.16 seconds, cutting two seconds from her previous mark. Her time was 1:20.00. Karjalainen also improved by more than a second, finishing tenth in 1:19.60.
“I’m so proud of this team and the hard work they’ve put in,” Cole said. “The state meet is bittersweet—it’s our seniors’ final swim, but also a celebration of the team and everything the girls have accomplished this year.”
The Sequim 400 free relay team — Emma Rhodes, Ashlyn Sol, Madelyn Bower, Violet Phillip — finished 11th with a time of 5:27.82, while Rhodes finished 13th in the 200 IM (3:02.71).
East Jefferson had a pair of 10th-place finishes by relay teams. The 200 freestyle relay team of Stella Bosley, Eleanor Curtis, Sell Mack and Bella Ferland was 10th in a time of 2:07.14, and the 400 freestyle team of Ferland, Frances Lynch, Mack and Bosley was 10th in a time of 4:52.04.
Ferland was also 12th in the 100 freestyle (1:04.37), while Bosley was 13th in the 100 breaststroke (1:25.05).
The Sequim 200 medley relay team qualified for state. From left are Holly Sol, Naomi Beglykov, Annie Ellefson and Ava Shinkle.
