The Todd Beamer Titans had a titanic day at the Class 4A State Girls Swimming and Diving Championships in their home pool at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center Saturday morning.
Beamer snared a relay state championship and finished up in fourth place in the Class 4A team standings.
Jackson won team title by scoring 190 points. Garfield followed in second (157.5) and Redmond ended up third with 148.5 points. Beamer finished fourth with a total of 143 points, despite qualifying just four individual swimmers, two divers and three relay teams.
Leading the way for the Titans was the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Kelly Erickson, Jessica Soria, Rachel Kim and Eryn Murphy. The foursome easily outdistanced second-place Newport to snare the school’s first-ever girls state swimming title.
Beamer finished in a time of 1:38.94 during the finals, almost two seconds ahead of Newport. The Titans entered Saturday’s finals as the top seed after swimming a 1:39.63 during Friday’s preliminary round.
“It was just a great job by the girls,” said Beamer athletic director Jerry Peterson. “We had one of the smallest teams there and for us to get fourth place is quite an accomplishment.”
The Beamer 200 medley relay team of Kim, Janelle Freeborn, Soria and Murphy also snared a podium appearance during Saturday’s finals at the King County Aquatic Center. The Titan team finished third in a time of 1:50.37. Jackson won the event in 1:48.02 and Redmond finished second (1:49.38).
Leading the way for the Titans were Kim and Murphy. The Beamer pair both swam in two individual finals Saturday to go along with their 200 free relay state title and third-place finish in the 200 medley relay.
Kim, a sophomore, finished in fourth place in the 100 backstroke in a time of 58.21 and was fifth in the 200 individual medley in 2:09.02.
Murphy, a junior, ended up fifth in the 50 free in a time of 24.19 and sixth in the 100 free in 52.94.
Jefferson freshman Amber Cratsenberg didn’t accomplish her goal of winning a state championship in the 50 free Saturday, but she came mighty close, finishing second.
Cratsenberg was out-touched by just .23 of a second by Jackson junior Alana Pazevic, who won in a time of 23.55. Cratsenberg also finished fourth in the 100 free in a time of 51.83. Jefferson teammate Savanah Coe finished eighth in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:09.33. The pair helped the Raiders to an 18th-place finish in the team standings.
Decatur senior Briley Boggs also had a strong state meet. Boggs swam a career-best time of 57.01 in the 100 butterfly final Saturday to finish in third place. Boggs also won the B Final in the 50 free in a time of 24.83 to take ninth place in the event. It was Boggs’ fourth trip to the state swim meet.
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State Swimming/Diving notes:
• The TJ 200 medley relay team of Janice Huynh, Savanah Coe, Michelle Hogan and Cratsenberg finished 12th overall during Saturday’s B Final in a time of 1:55.16.
• Decatur’s Kelsey Crowder finished 13th in the 200 individual medley by swimming a 2:13.62 in the B Final Saturday. Crowder also ended up in a tie for 12th in the 100 backstroke (1:02.43).
• The Decatur pair of Angela Hansen and Jaqueline Robinson-Hamm both qualified for the 16-girl finals in the 1-meter diving event. Hansen finished 11th with a total of 301.90 points and Robinson-Hamm was 16th with 275.65 points. Beamer’s Laura Schrader was one place away from qualifying for the finals. Schrader finished 17th in the preliminary round Friday.
• Beamer’s Jessica Soria ended up 11th Saturday in the 100 butterfly (59.16) and teammate Kelly Erickson was right behind in 12th in a time of 59.25.
• The Federal Way 200 free relay team of Kaia Barth, Keeley Craig, Dalynn Wingard and Kayla Ramsey finished 16th in a time of 1:46.33. The same foursome finished 21st in the 400 free relay.
• The TJ team of Baily Warrior, Janice Huynh, Savanah Coe and Cratsenberg failed to make the 16-team final by finishing 17th in the preliminary round Friday (1:44.98) in the 200 free relay.
• The Beamer 400 free relay team of Erickson, Lesley Elijah, Soria and Janelle Freeborn was disqualified in the B Final Saturday.
• It was a record-setting meet inside the King County Aquatic Center. Areas swimmers at the 4A and 3A meets broke several state and meet records during their two days in Federal Way.
In the 3A meet, Peninsula’s Lindsey Marchand broke the state record in the 100 butterfly Friday night (53.34) and the 100 breaststroke Saturday (1:02.00).
Kentlake’s Chelsea Bailey set a state record in the 100 free, finishing in 49.82 seconds and breaking the old record of 50.16, set by Emily Silver of Bainbridge, set in 2003.
Bailey broke another state record in the 100 backstroke (54.84), but she was one-upped the next lane over by Ballard’s Annemarie Thayer, who swam even faster (53.95). But Thayer’s record didn’t last long as Mount Rainier’s Leona Jennings swam a 53.66 in the 3A meet.
Skyline’s Andie Taylor eclipsed the state record in the 200 individual medley with a time of 1:58.23 and Jackson’s Amber McDermott set a new state mark in the 500 free (4:41.98).
