FEDERAL WAY — For four years, David Clobes set his sights on a particular goal — to be the best in the 100-yard butterfly at Meadowdale High School.
In what was his final high school competition, Clobes achieved his goal by swimming a time of 54.49 seconds in the Class 4A state boys swimming preliminaries Feb. 17 at the King County Aquatic Pool.
The time was good enough to qualify Clobes for the consolation finals the next day, where he finished 14th overall with a time of 54.70.
The old record of 54.86 was set by Greg Brewer in 1980.
“It feels really cool being the fastest butterflyer in the history of Meadowdale,” Clobes said. “It’s kind of been a goal that I’ve had since freshman year and I finally got it, which is awesome.”
Clobes, who came into state with a seed time of 55.00, was confident the record would fall sometime during the weekend.
“I was pretty sure I’d get it,” Clobes said. “I just didn’t know when.”
Meadowdale coach Kati Girard noted that Clobes starts out fast in the event. The key to breaking the record was for Clobes to have a strong finish.
“We were just trying to encourage him to hang on and bring it back hard,” Girard said. “He really said that he felt he needed to do that.”
Clobes clocked in with a 25.06 in the first 50 yards and then closed with a 29.43 for his final 50 in Friday’s preliminaries. In the consolation finals, Clobes was a little slower but clocked in with his second straight sub-55 time, which demonstrated to Girard just how well Clobes was swimming.
“I think (Friday) was his pride and joy,” Girard said.
This was Clobes’ fourth straight trip to the state meet, but it was the first time he advanced by surpassing the state time qualification standard.
Until he started with high school swimming, Clobes was not particularly adept in the 100 butterfly. But then he started to work on the stroke and began to experience success.
“I went and did it my own way. I kind of clicked,” Clobes said. “Ever since then it’s been fun. It’s always been my favorite stroke. It’s just never been my fastest.”
Edmonds-Woodway’s 200 freestyle relay team also advanced to the second day of the state meet. The Warriors (Nate Stoll, Bryant Shiu, Sean Maden and Rick Aaroe) finished 12th overall with a 1:32.82, which was faster than Friday’s preliminary time of 1:33.23.
“It was really nice to have all four of them be able to be back today,” Edmonds-Woodway coach Matt Delaney said. “We just spent a little bit more time being mentally prepared for what they had to do today. They swam fine yesterday, but today it was obvious that they were focused. They were concentrating. I was impressed with their swim.”
Only Aaroe will be graduating this spring, while the other three members of the relay team will be back next year.
Stoll took 18th place in the 50 freestyle with a 22.85 and just missed advancing to the finals. The Edmonds-Woodway junior standout also placed 19th in the 100 backstroke with a 58.17.
Since the 200 freestyle relay is the event right before the 100 backstroke, Stoll usually doesn’t have much left for the event.
“The guys put so much focus on the 200 freestyle,” Delaney said. “He (Stoll) exhausted himself in that. I was impressed with his effort.”
All four members of the relay had experience swimming at the state meet, so they were able to concentrate on their races rather than getting caught up in the mystique of being at state, Delaney said
“This year they were here to swim fast,” Delaney added.
NOTE
LAFAVE INDUCTED: Referee Dick LaFave of Mountlake Terrace was one of 19 individuals inducted by the Washington Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association into its Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame during the state meet. Athletes inducted included Chuck Richards of Stadium; Bill Stipek, Dave Hannula, Rod Stewart, Dan Seelye, Mark Smith, Dick Hannula Jr. and Dean Ehrenheim of Wilson; Craig Phillips of Lakeside; Steve Nelson of Olympia; Randy Sauro of Clover Park; Andy Leonard of Newport; Jeff Walker of R.A. Long, and Roger von Jouanne and Brit Jamieson of Hazen. Coaches to be inducted include: Craig Martin of Eastmont, Ilo Sande of Mount Vernon and Earl McKinney of Highline.
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