Jackson ends Kamiak’s 103-meet win streak in boys swimming

Published 8:02 pm Thursday, January 22, 2015

MILL CREEK — Just over three months ago, the Kamiak High School boys tennis team ended Jackson’s streak of 97 straight league wins.

On Thursday, the Jackson boys swim team returned the favor.

The Timberwolves defeated Kamiak 100-70, ending the Knights’ streak of 103 straight dual-meet wins dating back to Feb. 7, 2008, when Kamiak lost to a Snohomish team that went on to win the Class 4A state championship.

“This is definitely the best we’ve swam all season and I’m just really, really impressed with the way these guys responded to the pressure that I tried to keep off, but they wanted to put on themselves,” Jackson coach Drew Whorley said. “We had nothing to lose and they kind of took that attitude.”

Whorley and his swimmers may not have known the exact number of the streak, but they clearly wanted to be the ones to end it.

“Because attention had been drawn to it and the kids read the papers, we did spend more time talking about this meet than we typically would a dual meet,” Whorley said. “The thing that I focused on over the course of the whole week was trying to really instill confidence in the kids that regardless of what the final score is, we’re going to come away from this meet happy about the swims because what we kind of take pride in is that we step up and swim well win it matters.”

Kamiak had winners in just three of the 11 events and nearly all of the close races ended in Jackson’s favor. Jackson’s Jon Cook edged Kamiak’s Henry Limm in the 200-yard individual medley, finishing with a time of 1:56.22, which was just over half a second better than Limm’s 1:56.73. Conner McGinnis won the 100 butterfly, edging Kamiak’s Eben Schumann by nearly three-quarters of a second.

“Our focus has really been to just keep moving forward every day step by step,” McGinnis said. “I think we came in here just like we have every meet, getting in here warming up and just gearing ourselves up. We treated it like any other meet and it turned out the way we wanted it to.”

The closest race of the day came in the 100 breaststroke, where Cook edged Limm again with a time of 59.61 compared to 59.74.

“One of the keys to this meet was our studs versus their studs, if you will,” Whorley said. “One of our greats was going to have to take on one of their greats and that was going to probably dictate how the meet was going to go. Fortunately those guys rose to the occasion.”

Just as important as getting victories in the dual-meet format is having depth. Five swimmers score points in each individual event and three teams score points in each of the three relay events.

“This meet was won with second-, third- and fourth-place finishes and a lot of those kids are freshmen,” Whorley said. “To see them respond in this type of environment is real exciting.”

Jackson finished 1-2 in the first two events of the meet and earned another first-place finish in the third to take an early lead that would hold up throughout.

“Fast swimming is contagious,” Whorley said. “If you see your teammates doing it, you start to believe that you can do it.”

Kamiak head coach Chris Erickson said he hopes the losses in the close races will help motivate his team with the district meet coming up in three weeks.

“There were some good close races,” Erickson said. “I don’t think we got most of them. Hopefully that will get them to be a little tougher and a little more disciplined on the finish and we’ll come back at them and try to defend our district title.”

Erickson said this could be the start of something special for Whorley and his team.

“You’ve got to respect and appreciate what Jackson did — and what they’re going to do,” Erickson said. “They have some young ones coming up. They’re maybe going to be even stronger next year.”

Whorley made it a point to make sure his team was aware of how much the Knights have accomplished.

“You want them to be aware of and be respectful of the fact that Kamiak did something really cool,” Whorley said. “They’ve got a great program and they’ve got a great coach. They’ve done a tremendous job and they’ve represented our state really well. This may be a tough loss for them and it’s a great win for us, but this is about respecting the role that they’ve played in our swimming community and now the role that we’re trying to play as well.”

It’s been an eventful school year for Whorley. His Jackson girls team came from behind to earn a share of the 4A state championship in November. Now, after ending Kamiak’s streak, his boys team appears poised to make a run at the state title.

“This is why you do it,” Whorley said. “These kids feel so good about themselves right now, and that means the world to me.”

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.

At West Coast Aquatics

200 medley relay—Jackson (Conner McGinnis, Jon Cook, Tarek Farouk, Chris Anderson) 1:41.23*; 200 freestyle—Neal Thai (Jackson) 1:55.93; 200 individual medley—Jon Cook (Jackson) 1:56.22*; 50 freestyle—Eben Schumann (Kamiak) 21.92*; Diving—Not held; 100 butterfly—Conner McGinnis (Jackson) 52.74*; 100 freestyle—Shelby Lee (Kamiak) 49.55*; 500 freestyle—Jeremiah Tien (Jackson) 5:08.52; 200 freestyle relay—Jackson (Conner McGinnis, Jon Cook, Tarek Farouk, Jeremiah Tien) 1:32.92*; 100 backstroke—Shelby Lee (Kamiak) 55;18*; 100 breaststroke—Jon Cook (Jackson) 59.61*; 400 freestyle relay—Jackson (Chris Anderson, Jeremiah Tien, Brian Phung, Neal Thai) 3:27.53.

*Denotes 4A state qualifying time