RENTON — For the second straight year and the fourth time in six years, the Port Angeles girls swim team won the West Central District III 2A championship, getting a bit of revenge on north Kitsap team that beat the girls ina regular-season meet earlier this year.
Sophomore-heavy Port Angeles ended with 248 points, edging North Kitsap with 223.5. Sequim had 76.5 points and Port Townsend 41. Information on which Sequim and Port Townsend swimmers qualified for state was not available before press deadline.
“North Kitsap opened the door with a disqualification in the meet’s first event the 200 medley relay. We capitalized on the situation and never looked back,” said coach Rich Butler.
The Roughrider girls also won district in 2012, 2013 and 2016.
The Riders qualified 10 girls for state in 15 events.
The Port Angeles 200 medley relay team of Kenzie Johnson, Nadia Cole, Felicia Che and Erin Edwards won the district title with a time of 1 minute, 54.58 seconds and Nadia Cole won two individual events.
Cole won the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:12.19 and the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:07, qualifying for state in both events.
The top 12 places from Friday’s district preliminaries advanced, while the top six places from Saturday’s finals advance automatically to state.
Other Roughriders qualifying for state were:
• 200 freestyle — Sierra Hunter, fourth, 2:06.67
• 200 individual medley — Che, fifth, 2:20.22; Emma Murray, seventh, 2:22.85.
• 1 meter diving — Cassii Middlestead, third, 288.40 points (Allocated to State); Lum Fu, fifth, 283.60 pts (Allocated to State)
• 100 butterfly — Che, fifth, 1:02.64.
• 100 freestyle — Johnson, fourth, 57.73
• 500 freestule — Hunter, second, 5:35.62; Maggie Martin, fifth, 6:07.22 (allocated to state)
• 200 Free Relay — Beebe, Kiara Schmitt, Hunter, Edwards, third, 1:45.99
• 100 backstroke — Johnson, third, 1:02.43
• 400 Free Relay — Che, Murray, Johnson, Cole, second, 3:47.91
Other district finishes include:
• 50 freestyle — Edwards, seventh, 26.68; Beebe, 10th, 27.04
• 100 butterfly — Murray, eighth, 1:04.56
• 100 freestyle — Edwards, eighth, 59.12
• 100 backstroke — Beebe, 12th, 1:08.85
• 100 breaststroke — Tana Hiigel, 11th, 1:18.05
• 1-meter diving — Lily Robertson, 10th, 182.55 points
The Roughriders finished second at the 2A state swim meet last year with a freshman-laden team. Many of those swimmers are back on this year’s team, though the Riders did lose a couple of powerful seniors from last year. The preliminaries at the state swim meet begin Friday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
West Central District III Preliminaries Results (Friday)
These Port Angeles swimmers did not advance to the district finals.
200 freestyle — Maggie Martin, 13th, 2:14.29; Emma Weller, 19th, 2:21.99.
200 I.M. – Hiigel, 17th, 2:39.94
100 freestyle — Schmitt, 13th, 59.97; Seelye, 15th, 1:00.99
500 freestyle — Jane Rudzinski, 13th, 6:33.09
100 backstroke — Schmitt, 13th, 1:10.03; Kiara Amundson, 22nd, 1:12.62
100 breaststroke — Weller, 17th, 1:20.54; Adriana McClain, 18th, 1:20.62.
