By Morris Malakoff
Herald Writer
FEDERAL WAY – Last weekend, the Meadowdale Mavericks girls swim team put on a less than stellar performance in the preliminary heats of the Northwest District meet. Afterward, the team collectively assured head coach Ron Martin not to worry, that things would improve in the finals the next day.
“I wasn’t concerned, their word is always good,” said Martin. Sure enough, the Mavericks had a solid performance in the district finals.
Martin will need to hold his charges to a similar promise in the finals of the State Class 2A/3A girls swimming championships today at the King County Aquatics Center.
In Thursday’s preliminaries, things never quite came together for the lone Snohomish County participants in the meet.
As the Mavericks’ 200-yard medley relay squad was mounting the starting platform in the opening event, a suspension of the meet was called to repair the timing system. After a delay of more than 30 minutes, competition resumed and the Mavericks drifted to a bottom five finish in the 24 team field with a time of 2:02.61, over 11 seconds behind pacesetter Bainbridge Island.
Meadowdale had better results in the two other relay events.
A 13th place time of 1:45.71 was good enough to give the Mavericks a slot in the 200 freestyle relay consolation final.
In the final event of the preliminaries, the 400 freestyle relay, Meadowdale advanced to the consolation final with a 14th place time of 3:52.52.
Individually, three seniors swimming in their final high school meet had moderate successes. All three advanced to today’s finals, albeit only in consolation races, closing the door on any possibility of Meadowdale bringing home an individual state title in a swimming event.
Sarah Earling advanced to today’s consolation finals when she finished 12th in the 200 free.
Brittany Kunze and Shelby Hill will both be in the pool for the consolation final of the 200 IM. Hill and Earling both advanced into the 500 free consolation final.
The Mavericks’ best opportunity for points may come in the diving event. Brittany Zdenek, a junior, finished in sixth place last year.
One new record was set in Thursday’s competition when Rebecca Sturdy of Anacortes set a state girls record with a time of 55.30 in the 100 butterfly, surpassing the 55.89 time set by Maureen Phillips of Sammamish in 1993.
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