MUKILTEO — Kamiak scored 222 points at last year’s 4A state swimming and diving meet and 208 of those points graduated following the Knights’ district and state championship victories.
Conventional wisdom would lean toward the 2010 version of the Kamiak boys swimming team being in a state of flux, a rebuilding year.
But through hard work, a roster loaded with swimmers and a fortuitous transfer, Kamiak remains the team to beat in the Western Conference.
Kamiak followed up a second-place finish at last Saturday’s Kentridge Invitational meet with a 111-75 dual meet victory over Shorewood Tuesday night at Kamiak High School.
Shorewood (3-1 league, 6-2 overall) had eight individual winners, including Eddie Young in the 1-meter diving event, but Kamiak’s strength lies in numbers.
Kamiak (5-0, 9-0) swimmers consistently racked up points in second, third and fourth place in many events.
Trent Roberts, a Kamiak transfer from southern California, won the 200-yard freestyle in a state-qualifying time of 1 minute, 49.53 seconds. Roberts also placed second in the 100 freestyle, behind Shorewood junior Thor Stenfjord’s winning time of 48.79 seconds.
“A lot of those kids have improved a bunch,” Kamiak head coach Chris Erickson said of his swimmers left over from last year’s state championship team. “So our present juniors and sophomores from last year really improved.”
One name Erickson picked out of that group was junior Chris Choi.
Choi placed second to Stenfjord (1:59.11) in the 200 individual medley with a state-qualifying time of 2:02.79 and took second in the 100 backstroke behind Shorewood senior Marcus Gill (57.33). The junior also swam the lead leg of Kamiak’s 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.
Shorewood head coach Scott Kelley was pleased with the individual performances of his team, but seemed resigned to the fact of Kamiak’s superior depth.
“Our top swimmers are really performing at a high level in the middle of the season, that’s kind of exciting,” Kelley said. “So there’s the hope of them dropping time when they get rested.
“… Our depth really isn’t that bad, it’s just Kamiak’s is so good it makes everyone look bad. We may be a little worse depth-wise than last year, but it’s not that bad.”
The Thunderbirds heavily rely on Stenfjord, Gil and junior Mackey Hopen for the core of the team’s points.
“All three of those guys push each other and they’re the heart of our team,” Kelley said.
Despite losing a tremendous amount of talent through graduation, Erickson still thinks his squad is good enough to shoot for a top spot at state — with some improvements.
“We were a sprint team last year,” Erickson said. “This year our last relay we qualified for was the 200 free relay.
“It’s a whole different idea, so we’ve got some things to work on.”
A team with tremendous size and strength in 2009, Kamiak relies more on hard work than physicality this season.
“I know that we can get better, which is good,” said Erickson, who is in his 12th year with the Kamiak program. “I know that we have things to work on, things we can improve.”
Along with Choi and Roberts, freshman Liam Sosinsky could be a major key for the Knights down the stretch.
Sosinsky, ranked as one of the area’s best young swimmers in the breaststroke event according to Erickson, placed third in the 200 individual medley and second in the 100 breaststroke — .59 seconds slower than Hopen.
At Kamiak H.S.
200 medley relay—Shorewood (Thor Stenfjord, Marcus Gill, Mackey Hopen, Colin Bell) 1:40.83*; 200 freestyle—Trent Roberts (K) 1:49.53*; 200 individual medley—Thor Stenfjord (S) 1:59.11*; 50 freestyle—Mackey Hopen (S) 21.57*; 1-meter diving—Eddie Young (S) 234.60; 100 butterfly—Marcus Gill (S) 54.79*; 100 freestyle—Thor Stenfjord (S) 48.79*; 500 freestyle—Tyler Cheung (K) 5:14.10; 200 freestyle relay—Shorewood (Marcus Gill, Thor Stenfjord, Colin Bell, Mackey Hopen) 1:31.65*; 100 backstroke—Marcus Gill (S) 57.33*; 100 breaststroke—Mackey Hopen (S) 1:00.17*; 400 freestyle relay—Kamiak (Trent Roberts, Tyler Cheung, Ben Tu, Kyle Kusuda) 3:25.10*. Records—Shorewood 3-1 league, 6-2 overall. Kamiak 5-0, 9-0.
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