Archbishop Murphy boys swimmers save best for last at state

FEDERAL WAY -- With the team title already mathematically out of reach, the four members of Archbishop Murphy's 400-yard relay team -- the only four swimmers Murphy had at state -- focused all of their energy onto that final event of the evening.

And with all four swimmers turning in career-best efforts, the Wildcats knocked off rival Sehome to earn a state title in the relay that capped what coach Mike McCloskey called, "A perfect meet."

The message before the 400 relay, said junior Hunter Cosgrove, was simple: "We don't care that we're not going to win the meet, let's win this race, because it's the moment that counts. It was a great way to end it."

No, the Wildcats didn't have the depth to keep Sehome from winning its fourth straight Class 2A title, but Archbishop Murphy, with only four swimmers and a diver, did manage to finish second in the team competition, giving the fourth-year program its best finish in state.

Junior Alec Barnard, Archbishop's only swimmer with state experience, won the 100-yard butterfly to give him a fourth career state title. Barnard, who also finished second in the 200 free, won both of those events last year, and won the 200 free as a freshman in 2010. Renton's Steve Sholdra prevented Barnard from another double by winning the 200, and also won the 500 free ahead of two Archbishop Murphy swimmers, freshmen Austin Barnard and Stephen Boden.

For the Wildcats to finish second with so few swimmers, they were going to need big performances out of everyone, and for the most part they got it. In addition to finishing third in the 500 free, Boden also finished third in the 200 individual medley, knocking nearly five seconds off of his best time coming into the weekend. Austin Barnard added a fifth-place finish in the 200 free to go along with second in the 500 free, and Cosgrove finished third in the 100 back and fourth in the 100 free. In addition to winning the 400 free relay, those four teamed up to finish in a tie for second in the 200 free relay.

Diver Steve Kane, the not-so-common dual-sport athlete who is a defensive end in the fall and diver in the winter, came into state seeded 15th out of 16 divers and finished fourth.

"It's the chemistry of these kids," said McCloskey. "They've had it from Day 1. They've just kept working hard. They're focused. If there was an off day or an off meet, it didn't faze them. They'd come right back."

So good was Friday's showing, however, that McCloskey worried about how his team would perform Saturday.

"We had a perfect meet basically yesterday, so we were a little worried coming into today, because how do you follow that up?" he said.

It turns out the Wildcats followed it up pretty well.

At King County Aquatics Center

Team Rankings--1. Sehome 117, 2. Archbishop Murphy 86, 3. North Thurston 55, 4. Pullman 40, 5. Anacortes 38.

Diving--4. Steve Kane; 100 butterfly--1. Alec Barnard (AM) 51.21; 100 freestyle--4. Hunter Cosgrove (AM) 49.13; 500 freestyle--2. Barnard (AM) 4:45.12, 3. Stephen Boden (AM);100 backstroke--3. Cosgrove (AM) 54.86; 400 freestyle relay--1. Archbishop Murphy (Hunter Cosgrove, Stephen Boden, Austin Barnard, Alec Barnard) 3:15.52.