Warriors sweep past district rivals

Published 10:01 am Friday, February 22, 2008

LYNNWOOD — It might be time to rethink the name of the trophy awarded to the winner of last week’s Edmonds School District girls swimming and diving championships.

Given its dominance in the last decade, a more appropriate name might be the Edmonds-Woodway championship trophy.

For the 11th year in a row, the Warriors came out on top of the four-team competition Oct. 26 at Lynnwood Pool. Edmonds-Woodway swept all 11 events en route to the convincing victory.

The Warriors scored 447 points, far outdistancing Mountlake Terrace, which had 286. Meadowdale was third with 263 and Lynnwood was fourth with 97.

Edmonds-Woodway sisters Sarah and Mary Beth Spillman each won a pair of individual events to lead the Warriors. But a pair of seniors also stepped up their efforts, according to coach Rob Kvamme.

Senior co-captain Nora Vlasic took first place in the 50-yard freestyle, while fellow senior co-captain Katie Crawford captured the 100 butterfly.

“We’re getting to that part of the season where they’ve been swimming consistently,” Kvamme said in anticipation of the 4A sectional meet. “I think they’re positioned to have a good showing. They’ve shown what they should be doing at this point of the season, which is improving their times and coming out of the pool saying, ‘I’ve still got more left.’”

Though Mary Beth Spillman has carved out a bit of reputation as a sprinter this season, Kvamme saw that his freshman standout has talents in other races. So he wasn’t surprised when she set a meet record in the 100 backstroke. Spillman’s time of 1:04.35 was more than four and a half seconds faster than her fastest time coming into the meet and topped the previous record of 1:04.58, which was set by Edmonds-Woodway Soo Song in 1990.

“She views herself strictly as a freestyler,” Kvamme said of Mary Beth. “She was a sleeper in the backstroke. I knew she had it in her. It was just convincing herself that she could do it.”

With the Spillman sisters and a strong senior class, Edmonds-Woodway should have a better showing at the sectional meet than in years past.

That has been one of the Warriors’ goals, Kvamme said.

“The past three years we’ve been a great dual meet team,” he said. “We’d beat teams during the regular season that would beat us in the championship season because … they had a higher level of swimmers than we had. So this year, I think we’ll have a better showing.”

Mountlake Terrace coach Sally Moore was pleased by her team’s efforts, especially in the relays.

“We got second in all of the relays, which is good,” she said.

The 200 medley relay appears to be the Hawks’ top prospect at sectionals along with the 200 freestyle relay squad.

Individual standouts for the Hawks included Sam Nick in the 500 freestyle, Angee Burleigh in the 200 individual medley and 100 butterfly. Erika Taylor had a 30-second drop in the 500 freestyle.

“I was real pleased with the way the girls swam,” Moore said. “We had some kids with great time drops in the distance events.”

Some of Meadowdale’s top performances were turned in by its underclassmen, according to Mavericks coach Wayne McCool.

Freshman MacKenzie Storey had solid efforts in the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle.

“She’s got enormous potential,” McCool said.

Sophomore Melissa Fox performed well in the 50 and 100 freestyles as did sophomore Krysty Welch in the 200 and 500 freestyles. Junior Megan Dyer swam a district qualifying time in the 100 freestyle.

“My team performed great,” McCool said.

Lynnwood’s top swimmer was Mandy Chomos, who placed fourth overall in the 100 breaststroke and qualified for the 3A district meet.

“This is her third year swimming,” said Lynnwood coach Mike Caesar. “She’s really improved quite a bit this year.”

Almost a third of the Royals’ 26-member squad are freshmen so the team’s focus was more on times.

“In most meets, we hit PRs,” Caesar said. “That’s what we concentrated on — improving our times.”