Wesco 4A teams rip competition

Published 11:42 pm Friday, February 15, 2008

FEDERAL WAY — Hurricane Wesco barreled into the building wreaking havoc like a category four storm.

Led by two-time defending champion Snohomish, the Western Conference swirled all about, showcasing its collective might at Friday’s preliminaries of the Class 4A state swimming and diving championships at the King County Aquatic Center by seizing the No. 1 seed in seven of 12 events for today’s finals, including all three of the point-rich relays.

The Panthers — who have positioned themselves to make a run at a third consecutive team title — and the conference punctuated a strong showing by securing six No. 2 seeds, five No. 3 seeds and five No. 4 seeds.

Kamiak — seeded No. 1 in the 200 freestyle relay, No. 2 in the 200 medley relay and No. 4 in the 400 freestyle relay — is expected to make a bid to join Snohomish in the top-four.

Even close-to-the-vest Snohomish coach Rob Serviss was willing to acknowledge it was a promising start.

“I’m very happy, we’re (seeded) first in two relays, second in the other and pretty much everybody who was supposed to get a Saturday swim is going to swim,” Serviss said. “I look at prelims as giving ourselves an opportunity to score on Saturday and we did that.”

“Coming in a lot of teams, Richland, Kamiak, Inglemoor and Redmond were hovering around the same area,” Serviss continued. “It will be fun tomorrow.”

It would be worth the drive to Federal Way just to witness what should be a memorable battle in the 200-yard individual medley where Marysville-Pilchuck’s Trevor LeValley earned the No. 1 seed by shaving four seconds off his previous personal best with a time of 1 minute, 55.20 seconds.

Today the Tomahawks junior will be in coveted lane four, flanked on either side by John Hu (Oak Harbor) and Garren Riechel (Snohomish).

“Hard work all year long,” M-P coach Scott Knowles said of LeValley who additionally earned the No. 3 spot in the 500 freestyle, where Shorewood’s Bryan Michaels is favored. “It was just a good, solid swim.”

“I felt good the whole time,” said LeValley who was third at last week’s district meet behind Hu and Riechel. “It’s going to be a lot of fun with those guys right there.”

“That race is going to be crazy,” Serviss said. “It’s been a long time since that many people in one event were so close to each other and it’s going to be intense.”

“That was amazingly sweet swim for LeValley,” Kamiak coach Chris Erickson said. “There’s going to be a lot of other amazing swims tomorrow.”

Cascade’s Sean Nesheim earned the No. 1 seed with a 1:43.65 in the 200 freestyle and is No. 4 — behind Pedack and Jackson’s Jimmy Rogers — in the 100 backstroke.

“(Nesheim) is the kind of guy a coach hopes comes along and you try not to mess him up,” Cascade coach Eric Smith said. “He is supremely talented.”

Prohibitive favorite Cole Scarbrough of Mount Tahoma was disqualified in the 50 freestyle. Whale Vincent of Shorewood and Kamiak’s Tyler Carriker are No.’s 2 and 6 for the finals.

“That (DQ) makes the 50 free wide open and Tyler knows that,” Erickson said. “(Carriker) had a weak turn today, but now he’s right there.”

3A meet: Tyler Hayden of Shorecrest is seeded No.1 for the championship finals in the 100 butterfly (52.93) and No. 4 in the 200 freestyle. Hayden also led the Scots to the consolation finals in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.

Wesco swimmers qualifying for the consolation finals include Alex Tarr (Everett, 200 freestyle), Michael Keane (Meadowdale, 200 individual medley and 100 breaststroke) and Sam Atkinson (Meadowdale, 100 backstroke). Meadowdale’s Atkinson, Keane, Darren Howell and Allen Wong qualified for the consolation finals in the 200 yard medley relay.