T-birds all smiles at state meet

FEDERAL WAY — Shorewood didn’t secure the top 10 finish it was craving but the Thunderbirds certainly made their impression felt at last week’s state swimming championships.

In the first event of the Class 4A finals Feb. 21 at King County Aquatic Center, Shorewood posted its highest placement of the two-day meet by taking fifth in the 200-yard medley relay.

Edged by Puyallup for fourth place at the wall, the foursome of sophomore Garrett Gentling and seniors Stuart Young, Alex Fleet and Eric Santroch recorded a season-best time of 1:41.36.

“Their splits kept dropping faster and faster,” Shorewood coach Bill Murray said. “Coming into it, that was the race everybody was pumped up for.”

The T-birds trimmed a bit off their state qualifying time in their preliminary heat to earn a seventh seed for the final. Last year, Shorewood finished 10th in the event.

“We dropped about a second and a half off the time we came into state with,” Gentling said. “All of us had good swims and we were real pleased with that race.”

Fleet and Gentling both reached the finals in the 100 backstroke. Just four other schools advanced multiple swimmers to the finals of the same event.

Slowed by an illness that stuck with him most of the week, Fleet settled for sixth place in a season-best mark of 54.71 seconds. As a sophomore and junior, Fleet eclipsed 54 seconds and took third both years.

“Before the race I mentioned to Garrett that ‘for the first time in three years, I’m not real nervous about this race. I’m just going to go out and do it,’ ” Fleet said.

One of only two sophomores in the finals, Gentling placed eighth in 56.28.

“It’s nice to have two guys from your team in a final heat. It’s good for points,” Gentling said. “(Times) were so much faster than last year. Just making top eight was difficult. I didn’t go in expecting to make top eight, so I was happy with that.”

“There were a lot of seniors in the 100 backstroke,” Murray added, “and when you take them out of the picture, that will put (Gentling) in a good place mentally to have something to look forward to.”

Fleet’s time of 1:59.95 in the 200 individual medley prelims would have been good enough for a fifth seed. But for the second year in a row Fleet was disqualified when an official ruled he didn’t complete a two-hand wall touch to begin the final leg.

“It’s so quick with that lead hand,” Murray said. “All you’ve got to do is make contact. The judge thought he pulled it away. You can’t get in a better position than the officials. It’s tough to go against their decision.”

Last year, Fleet was penalized for an illegal “dolphin kick” during the breaststroke. This year, his questionable turn came when he was switching from the breaststroke to the freestyle.

“I think I touched with two hands,” Fleet said. “But at the same time, it’s a championship race and you’re going to push it and it’s going to be close no matter what.”

Had he moved on to the final, Fleet was targeting a 1:55.

“It was frustrating to watch the 200 IM finals,” he said. “With my goal time I would have ended up second and I think I probably could have done that.”

Seeded eighth for the consolation final of the 50 freestyle, Santroch moved up a few spots to finish 13th overall in 22.52.

“That was a huge personal success for me,” Santroch said. “I think it was because I got my kick going. In the past I’ve been doing mostly arm strength. I finally got my kick to power me along. It’s really helped a lot.”

Shorewood’s 400 freestyle relay team of Gentling, Santroch, sophomore Michael Korpi and Fleet took eighth in the consolation final in 3:28.10 but was bumped to 15th overall due to a disqualification.

“We thought our 400 free relay would be seeded better,” Murray said. “We were all kind of shocked to see how deep 4A is in the 400 free relay.”

The same pack of schools swept the top four team places for the second straight year — but in a different order.

Decatur easily captured its first state title with 231 points, followed by Inglemoor (199.5), Puyallup (162.5) and defending champion Garfield (157.5). Western Conference North Division power Snohomish won both freestyle relays to claim fifth place.

The T-birds collected 60 points and placed 14th — four spots higher than their finish the past two years.

“This year is definitely going to be our highlight for the next couple of seasons,” Gentling said.POOLSIDE CHATTER

COACHES AWARD: Decatur coach Heather Kreier was voted Coach of the Year by her fellow 4A coaches at the state meet.

Murray was delighted to discover he was one of the three other nominees on the ballot, along with second-year Snohomish coach Rob Serviss.

It was a busy year for the T-birds, who defended their Wesco 4A South Division dual meet crown, placed a close second to Kamiak at the sectional championships and sent five swimmers on to state.

“By far in my three years of coaching, these were the best performances by the kids,” Murray said.

WESCO WATCH: No other Western Conference schools finished in the top 20 of the team standings. Edmonds-Woodway took 23rd, Marsyville-Pilchuck was 25th, Jackson was 32nd, Lake Stevens was 38th, Oak Harbor was 42nd and Kamiak was 46th.