School records were falling left and right at the Class 4A state swim meet Nov. 12-13 at the King County Aquatic Center.
Emily Tanasse from Kentlake broke her own record in the 100-yard butterfly three times over the weekend.
And the Falcons 200-individual medley relay missed breaking the school record by one-tenth of a second.
“Emily broke the school record (Friday),” said Kentlake coach Kati Stanford. “She had the record from last year. Then she just broke it again.”
Tanasse finished third in the 100 fly, touching out in 56.69 seconds, knocking nearly two seconds off her preliminary time. She also had a fifth-place finish in the 100 backstroke.
Tanasse’s time in the 100 fly also earned the sophomore an All-American Consolation nod. Meanwhile both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays for Kentridge broke school records, with the 200 free shattering it, explained co-head coach Erin Schulze.
“It’s a really exciting meet,” Schulze said. “Some of these girls from KingCo… we only get to see them once a year.”
But, that may be a good thing since Skyline easily defended its state title, racking up 220 points thanks to strong relays and a pair of individual state champions. Kentlake finished seventh, tallying 94 points, with Kentridge not far behind in ninth place with 84 points. There were 42 teams with swimmers at the meet.
The Falcons’ 200-medley team finished 10th overall, just two spots shy of the podium, with Sarah Dougherty swimming first, Mekena Eha second, Tanasse third and Taylor Bouffard anchoring the relay.
Freshman Kyndal Phillips finished fourth in the consolation final of the 200 individual medley and fifth in the consolation final of the 100 fly.
Bouffard was 16th in the 50 free for the Falcons.
Kentridge’s Emily Mohr put together a pair of solid swims to get onto the medal stand for both of her individual events. She also kicked it into high gear for the Chargers relays.
Mohr, a junior, had a fourth-place finish in the 50 free (24.24) as well as a sixth-place finish in the 100 free (53.03).
The Chargers 200-free relay finished third largely on the speed of Mohr, who anchored the relay, which put Kentridge ahead of Thomas Jefferson.
“She did excellent,” Schulze said of Mohr. “I’ve been trying to tell her to train year round because she’s swimming this fast … and she only trains high school and sometimes summer league.”
Kentridge co-coach Britney Jones added that it was particularly important for Mohr to beat Thomas Jefferson to the wall because she had been swimming against the Raiders anchor Amber Cratsenberg the whole meet, and Mohr just once wanted to beat her to wall the first. She did just that in the 200-free relay.
“We wanted our relays to make top eight,” Jones said. “They all went good times.”
And next year may be even better for Kentridge, Schulze noted, pointing out that there was only one senior on the 200-free relay team that also had two juniors and a sophomore.
“Hopefully you’ll see us again next year,” Schulze said. “This is an excellent group of girls.”
Stanford was proud of how her Kentlake team did and said if they could bring on a strong diver next year they could also be strong as they didn’t have any seniors at the meet — senior Chelsea Bailey, who set the record in the 100 free as a sophomore, was injured all season and still has not gotten back to swimming but she was at state cheering on her teammates.
“I feel the meet has gone well,” Stanford said. “The girls have placed where they wanted to or better and they’ve tried really hard. They’ve really put their hearts and souls into swimming this year.”
State did not go as well for Kentwood, which only had its 200-free relay team advance to the finals with seniors Lindsey Krause, Maggie Molloy, Erica Wright and Marissa Dyrdahl in the water in the consolation final.
“The 200-free relay shouldn’t have been here,” said Conquerors coach Sharon Wright. “We were the last ones to get in. We went from 23rd to 12th (in the preliminaries) which is awesome. It didn’t go as well as I would’ve liked. We were swimming a little injured.”
But, she was proud of how hard her swimmers worked, Wright said, as they dropped time in 200 free relay in the preliminary heat and “they did their best.”
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