FEDERAL WAY — In a competition chock-full of highlights, Jackson’s 400-yard freestyle relay team waited until the very end to put an exclamation point on a memorable Class 4A state swim meet.

The Timberwolves, who came into last weekend’s state championships with the fifth fastest time in the event, moved up to fourth place during the Nov. 15 finals at King County Aquatic Center.

Their blazing time of 3:43.16 was almost two seconds faster than their preliminary mark.

Jackson coach Drew Whorley was expecting his squad of Emily Rogers, Lindsay Pagard, Angie Wang and Amber Pleasant to be in the top eight.

“I didn’t think we’d be top five,” Whorley said. “They swam great yesterday (in the prelims) and I think yesterday gave them a lot of confidence … they came in fired up.”

All four members of the relay team are underclassmen and all but one of this year’s state participants will be back.

“It just turned out to be an awesome relay,” Pleasant said. “We did incredible. Last year none of our relays got top eight. This year we got fourth. Everyone was really pumped up and we were just like, ‘Let’s go out and get fourth,’ and that’s what we did.”

For a variety of reasons, Jackson didn’t really put together the 400 freestyle relay until the end of the regular season.

“The first time we swam this relay was at districts,” Rogers said. “I think we’ve been dropping a lot every time we swam it together.”

The Wolfpack advanced swimmers to three finals and two consolation finals. On the strength of those finishes, Jackson finished 11th overall in the team standings with 74 points.

Defending champion Rogers of Puyallup captured the team championship for the second year in a row with 218 points, followed by Kentwood (187.5) and Kamiak (182).

“The most exciting thing about it all is that they’re all sophomores and juniors,” Whorley said. “They’re going to be back and do it all again, so I feel real good about it now.”

What transpired in the pool Saturday night also was pretty exciting.

Pleasant came into the meet with the seventh fastest time in the 50 freestyle and ended up moving up to fifth place in the finals. Her time of 24.71 was 2/10 of a second faster than her previous best time.

“I was really pleased with that,” Pleasant said.

So was Whorley.

“Amber’s 50 free was exceptional,” he said. “It’s really big to see girls get into the finals and come back and improve and not be overwhelmed with the intensity of it all.”

Pleasant also placed eighth in the 100 freestyle. Despite messing up on one of the turns, the Jackson sophomore was only 1/100 of a second slower than her preliminary time. Pleasant’s prelim and finals marks were the two best times of her career.

Rogers took eighth in the 200 individual medley and finished 13th in the 100 breaststroke.

“Emily’s 200 IM was a totally gutsy performance,” Whorley said. “She went out a second and a half faster in her first 100 than she was out yesterday … she laid it all out there. It was a great performance.”

Rogers’ time of 1:10.05 in the 100 breaststroke was nearly 8/10 of a second faster than her prelim time and a personal best.

“I just tried to change my stroke a little bit to try and get it back to where it used to be,” Rogers said. “I was happy with how I swam because it was the best time for the season.”

Pagard, who was seeded 14th in the 500 freestyle, moved up to 13th.

“I told her to get in there and not worry about time and just put herself into position to race and try and beat somebody in the last 200 yards,” Whorley said. “That’s exactly what she did.”

In many respects, the strong finish by Pagard and her teammates in the 400 freestyle relay finals was the result of many years of dedication.

“They couldn’t have worked harder, not just this year but in all the years that I have been working with them, six years for some of them,” Whorley said. “It’s a culmination of all the hard work.”

And there is more to come.

“Next year is going to awesome,” Pleasant said.