SHORELINE — The poolside white board at Shoreline Pool read “Keep the dynasty alive.”
After a 96-90 dual meet win over Kamiak Jan. 24, the Shorewood boys swim and dive team’s dominance of the Western Conference South Division continued.
“It just feels really good especially for our seniors,” said Shorewood senior co-captain Matt Kim, one of six seniors honored at the T-birds final home meet of the season.
The Thunderbirds used their depth to sweep aside Kamiak, the last major obstacle in the way of the Thunderbirds’ fifth consecutive Western Conference South Division dual meet crown.
“This was a big meet,” Shorewood head coach Scott Kelley said. “The guys came in with their business faces on. Everybody who needed to swim big, swam big.”
The Thunderbirds only won five of 11 swimming events but seven individuals chipped in with second-place finishes. Shorewood junior Spenser Mestel won the diving competition.
“We did match up well and we knew it,” Kamiak head coach Chris Erickson said.
Shorewood freshman Tim Tan won the 100-yard butterfly in 56.49 seconds, edging senior co-captain Matt Kim (57.03). Tan won the 200 individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 7.09 seconds. Sophomore Maxwell Vincent won the 50 freestyle in 23.16 seconds.
The T-birds won two of the three relays, capturing the 200 medley relay in 1:47.41 and the 200 freestyle relay in 1:35.01.
Mestel, the two-time defending Class 4A District 1 champion, said his winning performance against Shorecrest Jan. 19 was his best of the year, but he was still happy with his effort against Kamiak. Mestel hopes to crack the 325-point barrier to automatically qualify for state at a District 1 diving meet Jan. 28 in Anacortes. At previous dive meets Mestel scored 285 and 315 points.
Shorewood, which improved to 6-0 in league meets and 7-2 overall, faced Meadowdale and Lynnwood Jan. 26 in a double-dual meet. The next challenge for the T-birds is to shave seconds off their times to get the best possible seeds at the district meet.
Next up is the District 1 swimming qualifier Feb. 2 at Hal Moe Pool in Snohomish.
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