TACOMA — The Port Angeles boys swim team finished third out of 11 teams at the West Central District 3 meet with diver Grant Butterworth winning a district championship in diving.
All three Port Angeles relay teams did well with three top-5 finishes and will move on to the state meet next weekend in Federal Way. The team totaled 155 points, with the relay teams collecting 70 of those points, just behind Steilacoom, which had 173. Bainbridge won the district championship with 434 points.
Butterworth had a score of 247.5, dominating early with a standout forward two somersault to earn 28.6 points. He briefly trailed after round eight, but he earned the district title in round 10 with an inward single somersault dive to take first place by 3.9 points. Port Angeles’ Jack Root was eighth in the diving, while Liam Nicholson was 10th. All three divers will move on to the state meet.
The Roughriders’ top relay team was the 200 freestyle team of Patrick Ross, Thomas Jones, Miles Van Denburg and Finn Thompson, which came in second. Thompson closed out the anchor leg in 23.02 seconds to take second place by 0.82 seconds.
The Riders’ 400 freestyle relay team of Van Denburg, Ross, Jones and Thompson came in third by a huge margin of 11 seconds, adding another 24 points. Finally, the 200 medley relay team of Jones, Nolan Medgin, Van Denburg and Finn Thompson had a fifth-place finish as Thompson, again the anchor, surged ahead in his leg with a 22.48-second split, overtaking Kingston by 0.8 seconds.
The top individual race was in the 500 freestyle. Jones came in fourth with a time of 5:08.71 and Van Denburg came in fifth at 5:10.52. Meek finished 12th.
In the 100 backstroke, Thompson placed again, taking fifth in 59.73, while Jensen Wolfe was 12th in 1:08.2.
In the 200 freestyle, Ross placed sixth in a time of 1:59.05, while Isaac Meek was 11th (2:08.69). Ross also delivered a strong showing in the 100 butterfly, placing eighth (1:01.95).
In the 100 breaststroke, Medgin was seventh in 1:11.6, while Killian Waknitz was 11th (1:15.02).
Several other Roughriders contributed in preliminaries, ensuring a strong team effort. Charlie Kasten placed 15th in both the 200 freestyle (2:11.53) and 100 breaststroke (1:17.57). Cliff Hales took 13th in the 200 individual medley (2:39.96) and 15th in the 100 backstroke (1:12.75). Edward Gillespie placed 13th in the 100 butterfly (1:06.30), and Wolfe added a 14th-place finish in the 500 freestyle (5:55.00).
Ross will move on to state in the 200 freestyle, while Jones and Van Denburg will compete in the 500 freestyle and Thompson in the 100 backstroke.
