EVERETT — It is a new season with a new coach, so that much is different for the Archbishop Murphy boys swimming and diving team.
But what remains the same from last season is a talent-laden team led by three standout athletes — all of them now seniors, all of them defending state champions.
At the 2014 state meet, the trio of Stephen Boden, Austin Barnard and Elliott Forde led the Wildcats to the Class 2A title. Boden won the 200-yard individual medley (1:52.01) and 500 freestyle (4:34.81), Barnard was first in the 200 freestyle (1:44.68), and Forde won the diving competition (372.0).
Archbishop Murphy also won the 2013 state championship, so Boden, Barnard and Forde are all hoping to close their high school careers with a three-peat title this season.
“That’s obviously our team goal and we just have to approach it as we did the last two years,” Boden said. “Work hard every day.”
The Wildcats won last season when Steilacoom, which led heading into the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay, was disqualified in that race. By placing second in the last race, Archbishop Murphy picked up enough points to slip past Steilacoom and claim the first-place trophy.
Winning again this season “is definitely do-able,” Barnard said. “But if we learned anything from last year it’s that anything can happen. Nothing is guaranteed.”
OK, but the Wildcats still look very good on paper. Boden, Barnard and Forde will likely be better this season, and some promising younger swimmers should also improve.
Under first-year coach Erin Edmondson, who was the head coach at Lake Stevens High School for 19 years, the Wildcats have close to 20 swimmers on this season’s squad. It is “a small team,” Edmondson acknowledged, “but we have quality. And you don’t have to have 50 kids on your team to win a state championship.”
In particular, she went on, Boden, Barnard and Forde “are standouts, absolutely. Their talent is amazing. I love watching them practice.”
Team practices, due to pool conflicts, have the Wildcats working out from 6-7 a.m. on weekdays. Boden, who lives in Bellevue, sets his alarm for 5:28, “and that’s exact to the minute.” Barnard, meanwhile, lives in Mill Creek, so he rolls out at 5:45 before heading to the nearby West Coast Aquatic Center, where the team trains.
But the sacrifice of early practices all becomes worth it when a state championship is on the line. With an elite field of competitors, the state meet “feels completely different than any other meet throughout the year,” said Boden, who will swim next season at the University of Wisconsin. “And the sense of representing your school on a state level is real exciting.”
“In the finals in diving, it’s especially intimidating,” added Forde, who is likely headed to MIT next year. “All eyes are on you, and to be successful you just have to hone in and focus on what’s happening in the moment.”
Last season, the Wildcats handled the pressure of the state championship meet very well. And that big-meet experience should be an advantage later this season when the Wildcats bid for a third straight title.
In the meantime, Archbishop Murphy is preparing for the start of its dual-meet season later this week. “Everyone’s putting in all the hard work and effort, and everyone’s improving,” said Barnard, whose college plans are undecided. “Right now everyone’s already better than they were last year, so I definitely think we’re a better team.”
Edmondson knows her squad is talented, “but I don’t want to say they’re going to win a state championship because I don’t want to jinx them,” she said “But absolutely, I think it’s do-able.”
For Boden, Barnard and Forde, she said, a third straight title “is their goal. This is their senior year, they want to go out with a bang, and they’re going to go (after a championship) as hard as they can.”
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