MUKILTEO — Three first-place finishes was all Shorewood needed to run away with top honors at last week’s Western Conference 4A South Division boys swimming sectional championships.
The Thunderbirds distanced themselves from the field by piling up four second-place swims and six additional top-five placings during the Feb. 14 finals of the seven-team meet at Kamiak High School.
As a follow-up to their regular-season league championship, the T-birds tallied 316 points to secure their second sectional title in three years. Two years ago, Shorewood shared the sectional crown with Kamiak.
Jackson (261 points) collected the most first-place medals with four to beat out Kamiak (239) for second in the team standings. Everett and Edmonds-Woodway (149) tied for fourth, followed by Mariner (99) and Mountlake Terrace (56).
Through five events Shorewood had taken a commanding lead of 80 points, largely due to the rapid-fire 2-3-4-6 finish of Chris MacGeorge, Matt Kim, Steve McCall and Dylan Crooks in the 50-yard freestyle.
“I knew we’d get a lot of points from that (race),” Shorewood coach Scott Kelley said. “Throughout the year I realized we had the guys that would be challenging for top-six. We probably had another guy we could have thrown in there, but we only get four (entries).”
Event winners, all swimmers who posted state-qualifying times and second-place finishers whose times were better than those of their counterparts at the Wesco North sectional meet received berths to this week’s Class 4A state meet at King County Aquatic Center.
Shorewood is sending three relay teams to state and junior Garrett Gentling posted a pair of state-qualifying times in two individual events at sectionals.
Gentling’s winning mark in the 200 individual medley of 2:03.28 was more than three seconds faster than the second-place swimmer. His second-place time of 55.60 seconds in the 100 backstroke was only a 10th of a second slower than Kamiak freshman Zach Harrington’s mark.
Kelley expects Gentling will be able to reach the state finals in both events. Last season, Gentling finished eighth at state in the backstroke and was part of a medley relay that placed fifth.
“He’s been a great swimmer all year for us,” Kelley said. “He’s worked harder than any other swimmer I’ve coached. Mentally, he’s constantly concentrating on what he needs to do daily at practice. I’m very excited about what he’s going to do (at state).”
McCall, Kim, Michael Korpi and MacGeorge won the 200 freestyle relay in 1:34.84, but since the T-birds had already surpassed the state-meet standard prior to sectionals their focus was on the other two relays.
Gentling, Maier, Kim and MacGeorge finished a close second to Jackson in the 200 medley relay and their time of 1:43.95 met the state cut-off. As did Shorewood’s second-place mark of 3:28.48 in the 400 freestyle relay, recorded by Gentling, MacGeorge, Korpi and McCall.
“We were hoping for first place,” MacGeorge said, “but second place with a state-qualifying time was good.”
Freshman diver Spencer Mestel locked up Shorewood’s remaining state berth by winning the 1-meter diving competition with an 11-dive total of 293.2 points.
Other top finishes for the T-birds were: Korpi, fourth in the 100 freestyle (53.23); Kim, fifth in the 100 butterfly (59.05); McCall, fifth in the 100 freestyle (53.24); and Maier, fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.98).
Sectionals was the last stop for part of a large senior class that helped establish Shorewood as one of the conference’s elite programs. The T-birds have claimed three Wesco South titles in a row and compiled a 16-0 dual meet league record the past two seasons.
“It’s a great way for the seniors to go out,” MacGeorge said. “No one could be any happier.”
Kelley concurred, adding that this year’s seniors have set a high standard for the T-birds to strive for in the future.
“We had 12 seniors and they were pretty much the backbone of our team,” he said. “I think we’re still left in a good position next year to compete for another title.”
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