Sixth-place Snohomish has its eye on next year

FEDERAL WAY – Perhaps next year youth will be served.

While Decatur, Stadium and Inglemoor staged a furious three-way battle for the team title, the young and weary Snohomish Panthers mustered up a sixth-place finish at the 4A boys swimming and diving state championships at the King County Aquatics Center Saturday.

Hey, not bad for a projected rebuilding project after claiming the fourth-place trophy last year.

“We were tired,” Snohomish coach Rob Serviss said. “By the end of the day it was kind of obvious.”

Given the circumstances, Serviss was far from disappointed with the Panthers effort.

“To get sixth at this meet, as fast as it was, with Evan Bernier (Inglemoor) and Ryan Verlatti (Stadium) – two of the greatest swimmers in state history – is a great accomplishment and something to be very proud of.”

Ultimately, even the two titles each for the University of Minnesota-bound Bernier (200-yard individual medley, 100 butterfly) and the University of Texas-bound Verlatti (100 and 200 freestyle) proved insufficient to overcome Decatur, which clinched the team championship by holding off Stadium and Inglemoor in the final race.

A single point behind entering the 400 freestyle, the Gators stirring victory gave Decatur (190 points) the edge over Stadium (185) and Inglemoor (183).

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Serviss said. “That was crazy.”

Wilson (149), Garfield (141) and Snohomish (120) rounded out the top six. Marysville-Pilchuck (60) was 14th. Meadowdale (37) finished 20th.

In the 50 freestyle race won by Wilson’s Brian Jack (21.19 seconds), M-P’s literally breathless Stephen Garka (21.69) placed third, just ahead of fourth-place Chris Fulton (21.73) of Snohomish.

“I didn’t breathe the whole way,” Garka said. “I’d never tried that before, but it turned out OK.”

Garka, who will swim for Div. III power Whitworth next year, overcame a tight turn at the midway mark in the consolation final of the backstroke to place 10th overall in an M-P school record time of 55.55.

“That (number) will be easy for me to remember,” Knowles said with a laugh.

Seeded fourth in the 100 freestyle, Fulton slipped to seventh behind sixth-place Jonathan Keane of Meadowdale.

“After my first swim (the 50 freestyle) I couldn’t get back into it,” said Fulton, a junior.

Though disappointed, Fulton’s face brightened when he looked forward. “We have some really high goals for next year,” Fulton said.

Indeed, Fulton, Jonathan MacMillan, Eric Pedack and Michael Turner from the 200 medley relay team, which placed sixth in 1:41.46, should all return with the benefit of the state meet pressure cooker experience.

MacMillan was also 10th in the 100 breaststroke and Pedack was 15th in the 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley.

M-P’s relay group of TJ Henninger, Ben Tweed, Garka and Dan Griffin won the consolation final in the medley event (ninth overall) in 1:42.76. Henninger, Garka and Griffin are departing seniors.

“That’s gonna be a huge loss,” said M-P’s Scott Knowles, who shared Washington Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association Coach of the Year honors with Bob Higgins of Wilson. “It’ll be kind of a reload next year. Somebody’s going to have to step up.”

Fulton’s 21.31 anchor leg lifted the Panther contingent that included Turner, MacMillan, and freshman Dan Ferguson to fourth place in the 200 freestyle relay.

“Next year … it’s going to be very exciting,” Serviss said.

M-P (Garka, Dustin Collman, Josh Banal and Griffin) was 10th. Meadowdale (Keane, Nick Delisle, Dustin Van Duin and David Clobes) placed 11th in the 200 freestyle relay.

In the 200 freestyle, Verlatti’s electrifying 1:38.74 was the third fastest time in that event in state high school history. Meadowdale’s Keane, a senior, placed seventh in 1:46.20. Ferguson was eighth in 1:47.28.

Shorewood’s Garrett Gentling (55.20) claimed sixth in the 100 backstroke. Bothell’s Chris Winchell (55.53) was seventh. Bothell’s Ethan Cramer grabbed seventh in the 500 freestyle with Edmonds-Woodway’s Tony Dennis eighth.

In the 3A meet, Shorecrest’s Tyler Hayden placed sixth in the 200 freestyle in 1:47.94 and ninth in the 500 freestyle in 4:55.43. He anchored the 200 freestyle relay, which placed 16th, and the 400 freestyle relay, which placed 14th.

Notes

Correction: Bruce Richards, former longtime Snohomish assistant coach and current age group coach with the Snohomish County-based Stingrays Swim Club won three consecutive championships in the 100 breaststroke for Wilson High School from 1964-1966. An item on page D7 in Friday’s Herald listed an incorrect event. In 1964 Richards broke the state record in the breaststroke. He then broke his own mark in each of the next two years. As a senior in 1966 Richards also set a state record in the 200 individual medley.