Melissa Randolf and Ali Abadi had a big day in the pool, helping their team earn a top-10 finish and taking a step along the path toward swimming at a national meet.

Randolf and Abadi — both 14-year-olds who compete for the StingRay Swim Club — came home from the Pacific Northwest Swimming Short Course Championships with two wins and two runner-up finishes.

“They both had multiple wins, which is very hard to do,” StingRay coach Ben Olszewski wrote in an e-mail about Randolf and Abadi.

Behind the strong swimming of Randolf and Abadi, StingRay finished sixth overall of the 37 teams that recorded points at the regional meet held Dec. 8-10 at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.

Abadi, of Brier, was first in the 100-yard backstroke and 400-yard individual medley, and added seconds in the 200-yard individual medley and 200-yard backstroke en route to an overall fourth-place finish in the boys 13-14 group.

Randolf, of Everett, had first-place finishes in the 100-yard butterfly and 50-yard freestyle events and was second in the 100-yard freestyle and 200-yard butterfly races. She finished fifth overall in the girls 13-14 age group.

In addition to winning races, Randolf and Abadi advanced to compete at a sectional championship to be held in March 2007 by swimming qualifying times in several events.

“This is a very high profile meet sponsored by Speedo and USA Swimming,” Olszewski wrote in an e-mail. “Typically coaches and swimmers consider sectionals as being a stepping stone to making Junior and Senior Nationals.”

Randolf qualified for sectionals — where all events will be measured in yards — in the 100 freestyle, 200 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly and 50 freestyle events. Abadi will compete in the 200 backstroke, 200 butterfly, and 1,650 freestyle.

StingRay teammates who also swam qualifying times and will join them at sectionals were 15-year-old Emily Ferreira (100 and 200 breaststroke), 18-year-old Marybeth Spillman (50 freestyle), 15-year-old Kyle Endres (200 breaststroke, 100 and 200 butterfly, 200 and 400 individual medley, and 1,650 freestyle), 16-year-old Dan Ferguson (100 and 200 freestyle, 100 butterfly), 17-year-old Nick Hryciuk (100 breaststroke), 17-year-old Eric Pedack (100 and 200 backstroke, 100 and 200 butterfly), and 15-year-old Garren Riechel (1,000 freestyle, 100 and 200 breaststroke, 200 and 400 individual medley).

The remaining StingRay swimmers who competed at the regional were Taryn Albright, Cathryn Armstrong, Maddie Baker, Robbie Burns, Tyler Cheung, Rebecca Delacruz-Gunderson, Benjamin Dovinh, Shelby Garrison, Anthony Grigore, Bryan Harvey, Kris Kusuda, Shelby Lee, Olivier Lefebvre, Easton Lemos, Mateusz Merchel, Anh Nguyen, Alexander Nguyenle, Trevor Olson, Hannah Pieper, Andrew Ramos, Kelsey Randolf, Alex Santiago, Amy Stevens, Valerie Stevens, Nate Stoll, Madeline Summers, Mekenzie Sutton Jede Tanggol, Miles Tipp, Derik Vessey, Kirstin Vessey, Alexa Weyer, Cassie White, Amanda Yelle and Bramon Yotty.