Kamiak ends Shorewood swimmers’ reign

MUKILTEO

Depth. Diving. Dominance.

Kamiak ended Shorewood’s six-year reign as dual meet champions of the Western Conference South Division with a commanding 109-77 win at Kamiak Pool Jan. 24.

Kamiak won eight out of 12 events to beat Shorewood for the first time since 2001, when the Knights won by two points.

“It’s too bad it’s ending,” Shorewood co-captain Max Vincent said. “It’s been a great four years. It would’ve been nice to win. They just swam a really good meet.”

The meet was tied after the first three events, but Kamiak’s Tyler Carriker edged Vincent in the 50 freestyle to give the Knights the lead for good. Carriker finished in 22.57 seconds and Vincent finished in 22.65 seconds. Both are state qualifying times.

“He touched me out last year,” Carriker said. “What I really wanted to do was go out and beat him. He’s a good swimmer, we both had our best time swims.”

Vincent got a state record time for the first time this season, but he felt there was room for improvement.

“I took an extra stroke,” Vincent said. “I had a bad turn. It happens. I’ll get him at districts.”

Kamiak was up by two points at that point, but a dominant performance in the diving section started to put it out of reach.

Kamiak’s Andrew Wells took first in diving with a school record score of 286.35. Ben Tu, Mitchell Wright and Sam Burdic took second, third and fifth respectively to score for the Knights. Shorewood’s Stephen Chung finished fourth after missing a dive.

Kamiak won the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1:42.38 and the 400-yard freestyle relay with a time of 3:23.29.

“We lost the last two years in the final relay,” Carriker said. “I told the team when that happened, we got this. I mean this is our time, we have our talent, we have been working hard. I mean we can do it, just go out there and get it. We all swam our best.”

Kamiak’s individual winners included Patrick Hunziker in the 200 individual medley (2:03.37) and 100 backstroke (56.51), Carriker in the 100 freestyle (49.58) and Chris Lynch in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.61).

“Everybody got better, everyone improved. The kids came in and stepped up beyond that loss, far beyond. But if you look at everybody’s best times, everybody’s faster, a lot faster,” Kamiak coach Chris Erickson said. “And we had a very strong junior class. We also had a class of sophomores, they’re not as deep, but they’re also pretty dang strong. The seniors have provided the leadership…”

Erickson had 13 swimmers who swam 50 miles in 12 days during Christmas break, with the only days off Christmas day and Sundays.

Bryan Michaels won the 200 freestyle in 1:51.09 for Shorewood, and Tim Tan finished second in 1:52.90. Michaels cruised to victory in the 500 freestyle in 4:53.88 and Tan won the 100 butetrfly in 54.88. Shorewood won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:32.46.

“We’re a faster team than last year,” Shorewood coach Scott Kelley said. “They just improved a lot better than us. I just got to tip my hat to them. I know Erickson works them really hard over there.”