FEDERAL WAY — Port Angeles finished second in the state in the Class 2A State Girls’ Swim and Diving championships Saturday.
Final results will be in published Monday’s paper.
The girls finished with 260 team points, to Liberty’s 322. Port Angeles and Liberty were neck-and-neck much of the day in the team competition but Liberty pulled away in the last four events of the day as the Patriots simply had too many competitors in the final heats for the Roughriders to keep up. The 100 backstroke, the third-to-last event, really helped Liberty as the Patriots had three top finishers in the final eight.
Sequim finished with 22 points.
Jaine Macias won the 100-yard breaststroke, while the Port Angeles 200 medley team of Macias, Kenzie Johnson, Felicia Che and Nadia Cole won their event. Macias also got third in the 100 butterfly. Macias, Johnson, Che and Cole teamed up again in the 200 freestyle to finish fourth.
Johnson finished third in the 100 backstroke, Cole fourth in the 100 breaststroke and Sierra Hunter seventh in the 500 freestyle. Che finished ninth in the 200 individual medley.
The Port Angeles team of Hunter, Emma Murray, Ashleee Seelye and Taylor Beebe was ninth in the 400 freestyle relay.
Meanwhile, in an extremely close competition, Port Angeles diver Cassii Middlestead finished second in the diving finals. She led after the preliminaries and semifinals but was edged out by Belle Wong of Liberty 338.80 points to 335.25. Port Angeles’ Lum Fu finished fourth with 283.85 points.
Middlestead cruised in the prelims with 149.20 points, ahead of second-place Wong, who had 136.35. Fu was sixth after prelims with 129.00 points.
After the semifinals, Middlestead maintained her lead with 241.35 points, while Wong had 225.20. Fu moved up to fourth after the semifinals with 209.65 points.
The Sequim 200 freestyle team of Syndee Linnane, Anna Miehe, Jasmine Itti and Sonja Govertsen finished 11th. Port Townsend’s Corinne Pierson was 16th in the 100 backstroke.
