FEDERAL WAY — It’s not good to give Snohomish senior Garren Riechel any ammunition to get pumped up for today’s boys 4A state swimming and diving meet.
Riechel, one of the state’s top swimmers in the 50-yard freestyle and 100 breaststroke events, is in prime position to repeat his state titles in those events after a strong performance in Friday’s preliminaries at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
The senior easily claimed the first seed in the 100 breaststroke, an event he has won for three straight years, with an automatic All-America time of 56.13 seconds, but it is the 50 freestyle where Riechel has the added motivation to succeed.
Todd Beamer High School junior Bart Wanot took the first seed with a time of 21.36 seconds and Riechel finished as the second seed in 21.58 seconds, displaying clear dissatisfaction with his time.
To further goad the senior, Wanot did a bit of trash-talking earlier in the day, claiming that he has the 50 freestyle final race “in the bag,” according to Riechel.
“I respectfully disagree,” said Riechel, whose seed time of 21.30 was 0.17 seconds faster than Wanot’s. “… The atmosphere just gets me going, I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”
As if he needed even more reason to be enthusiastic about today’s finals, this year’s meet is the last of Riechel’s impressive high school career for the Panthers.
“I try not to (think about his feelings about it being his last high school meet),” Riechel said. “I don’t want to get caught up in all the emotion.
“I’m here to swim, I’m not here to get lost in the emotion, that will come afterward.”
Riechel isn’t the only senior hoping to walk away from his high school career with a win.
Marysville-Pilchuck senior Oliver Durand qualified third in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:43.26 and fifth in the 500 freestyle (4:44.44).
“I felt really good about my 200 (freestyle),” Durand, who finished sixth in the 200 freestyle and fifth in the 500 freestyle at last year’s state meet, said. “I just went out there for a solid swim.”
Durand, who participated with a partial shave and said he hopes to trim some time today, recognized that he’s facing tough competition in each race.
“I’ve always swam those (200 and 500 freestyle events), so I’ve got to try and put together a better mental race … and just do well. … There’s a lot of good guys this year,” Durand said.
Kamiak, the defending state champion and back-to-back district champions, have contenders in five championship finals events along with divers. The Knights’ depth may come in handy again with a number of swimmers in the consolation finals.
“We hoped for a little better today,” Kamiak head coach Chris Erickson said. “We’ve got kind of an inexperienced team. … We’re going to do better tomorrow.”
No records fell during the preliminary rounds, but Erickson expects there to be more than a few tight races in today’s finals.
“Some of those races are going to be good,” said Erickson, pinpointing the 200 individual medley and 50, 100 and 500 freestyle races. “There are gonna be some real dog fights.”
Many Western Conference teams came up with solid relay swims.
Shorewood qualified first in the 200 medley relay (1:39.17) along with four additional conference teams. Three teams each qualified for the 200 and 400 freestyle relays.
At King County Aquatic Center
Championship finals qualifiers
200 medley relay—1, Shorewood (Thor Stenfjord, Mackey Hopen, Marcus Gill, Colin Bell) 1:39.17. 3, Snohomish (Bryan Harvey, Garren Riechel, Tyler Kutsch, Daniel Pedack) 1:40.36. 5, Marysville-Pilchuck (Oliver Durand, Spencer Girard, Josh Estella, Brandon Caldwell) 1:40.90. 6, Oak Harbor (Jacob Jepsen, Yale Rosen, Brandon Vagt, Matt Bolte) 1:41.98. 7, Kamiak (Chris Choi, Liam Sosinsky, Greg Turner, Kris Bratvold) 1:42.30; 200 freestyle—3, Oliver Durand (M-P) 1:43.26; 200 individual medley—3, Matt Roe (Stanwood) 1:57.73. 5, Thor Stenfjord (Shorewood) 1:58.08. 7, Nick Win (Jackson) 1:59.77; 50 freestyle—2, Garren Riechel (Snohomish) 21.58. 3, Mackey Hopen (Shorewood) 21.76. 8, Kris Bratvold (Kamiak) 22.27; Diving—xxx; 100 butterfly—2, Bryan Harvey (Snohomish) 52.33. 5, Scott Jerde (Lake Stevens) 53.08. 6, Marcus Gill (Shorewood) 53.34; 100 freestyle—4, Thor Stenfjord (Shorewood) 49.25; 500 freestyle—2, Matt Roe (Stanwood) 4:36.40. 5, Oliver Durand (M-P) 4:44.44; 200 freestyle relay—2, Shorewood (Thor Stenfjord, Marcus Gill, Leif Danielson, Mackey Hopen) 1:30.49. 6, Lake Stevens (Blake Werner, Tom Hale, Scott Jerde, Kyle Libra) 1:31.27. 7, Kamiak (Kris Bratvold, Brian Burns, Tyler Cheung, Kyle Kusuda) 1:31.47; 100 backstroke—4, Nick Win (Jackson) 53.97. 5, Bryan Harvey (Snohomish) 54.13. 7, Marcus Gill (Shorewood) 54.42; 100 breaststroke—1, Garren Riechel (Snohomish) 56.13. 2, Mackey Hopen (Shorewood) 59.04. 3, Spencer Girard (M-P) 59.67. 5, Bramon Yotty (Cascade) 1:00.55. 6, Liam Sosinsky (Kamiak) 1:00.99; 400 freestyle relay—4, Kamiak (Chris Choi, Trent Roberts, Tyler Cheung, Brian Burns) 3:20.67. 7, Lake Stevens (Blake Werner, Tom Hale, Scott Jerde, Kyle Libra) 3:21.79. 8, Stanwood (David Escobar, Tyler Swanson, Justin Murrell, Tim Hammer) 3:21.88.
3A meet: Shorecrest qualified two individuals and two relays for today’s consolation finals. Shorecrest’s Carter Osborne was 16th in the 100-yard freestyle and Kevin McKay was 11th in the 100 breaststroke. The Scots were 14th in the 200 medley relay and 15 in the 400 freestyle relay. The Scots’ Reyes McElmurry went into today’s diving finals in ninth place.
2A meet: Archbishop Murphy’s Alec Barnard qualified first for today’s final in the 200-yard freestyle and fourth in the 100 butterfly. Teammate RD Hunter qualified seventh in the 200 individual medley. Both swam on the 200 and 400 freestyle relay squads, which qualified sixth and fifth, respectively.
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