MARYSVILLE
A surprise win for senior Robbie Burns in the 200-yard freestyle topped a solid day for Jackson’s four state-bound swimmers at the 4A District 1 meet Feb. 10.
Burns took the lead in the 200 freestyle in the last 50 yards and edged favorite Dan Ferguson of Snohomish.
Burns won in a personal best-time of 1:47.25 at the Marysville-Pilchuck Pool.
Burns said his strategy was to “hang on for the first 100 and kind of conserve for the last 100.”
“I really respect him as a swimmer,” said Burns of Ferguson, who is a Stingray Swim Club teammate. “He was way off his time. It was really surprising actually.”
Jackson’s four state-bound swimmers validated the state-qualifying times they posted during the season at the district meet.
They are scheduled to compete in preliminaries at the 4A swimming and diving state championships today, Friday, Feb. 16 at noon. The meet continues at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 17.
Burns, senior Andrew Ramos and juniors Jimmy Rogers and Elijah Pleasant all swam state-qualifying times in individual events at districts.
The foursome then teamed up to take second behind Snohomish in the 400-yard freestyle relay with a state-qualifying time of 3 minutes, 22.19 seconds.
Burns took second in the 100 butterfly with a state-qualifying time of 53.96.
Last year at state, Burns finished 18th in the 200 freestyle and 17th in the 500 freestyle.
Pleasant took second in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:52.92 and finished third in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:48.57. Both times met the state standard.
Pleasant dropped more than 21/2 seconds off his preliminary time in the 200 freestyle final.
Pleasant took a brief lead in the final lap of the 500, but Marysville-Pilchuck’s Trevor LeValley went into overdrive to beat him to the wall and win.
Pleasant earned a wild-card berth to state last year in the 500 and finished 18th.
Rogers placed fourth in the 200 individual medley with a state-qualifying time of 2:03.34. He took third in the 100 backstroke with a state time of 57.63.
“I didn’t taper or shave or anything,” Rogers said. “For state I’ll be ready to go.”
This will be Rogers’ third trip to state. He made the consolation finals in the backstroke last year and finished 16th. He qualified in the 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley his freshman year.
Ramos placed second in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:03.62, an improvement of more than three-tenths of a second over his preliminary time.
Ramos’ times earned him a trip to state but he and the rest of the field will have to contend with Snohomish freshman Garren Riechel.
Riechel won the breaststroke in an All-American time of 58.71, nearly five seconds faster than the runner-up Ramos.
Jackson finished fifth out of 12 teams with a score of 318 points. Snohomish, the defending state 4A champions, took first with 639 points, easily outdistancing second-place Marysville-Pilchuck, which scored 376 points.
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