PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles boys swim team finished second at the West Central District 3 1A/2A swim and dive meet and will send numerous swimmers and relay squads to the state meet.
Port Angeles hosted the District 3 meet for the first time at Shore Aquatic Center this weekend.
Top-four finishes at district automatically advanced swimmers and relay teams to the state meet, which begins Friday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. All three Roughriders relay teams qualified for state, along with three individual swimmers and one diver. Seventeen Port Angeles athletes competed at district.
Eli Warren of the Port Angeles diving team competes at the District 3 meet at the Shore Aquatic Center in Port Angeles on Saturday. Warren finished fourth to qualify for the state 1A/2A meet that begins Friday in Federal Way. (Dave Logan/for Peninsula Daily News)
Freshman Adam Kaminski led the team in scoring with 24 points, followed closely by sophomore Miles Van Denburg with 23.
The Riders started the district finals with a bang. Port Angeles’ 200 medley relay opened the finals with a first-place finish in the team’s best performance all season. Thomas Jones, Edward Gillespie, Van Denburg and Patrick Ross rallied to edge Olympic by 0.58 seconds. Van Denburg erased a 3.5-second deficit and handed off with a narrow lead, and Ross sealed the win with a 23.22-second freestyle split.
Van Denburg had little time to recover before returning to the pool for the 200 freestyle. Entering as the top seed, he battled in a race where just 1.1 seconds separated first through third places. After leading through the opening 50 yards, Van Denburg found himself in a tight duel down the stretch, touching third in 1 minute, 48.95 seconds, a two-second personal best and an automatic state-qualifying time.
Van Denburg continued his strong meet in the 100 butterfly, placing fourth to earn his second individual state berth. Ross followed in fifth with a personal-best 58.64.
“Patrick has been hovering around the one-minute mark for a while, and in this meet he finally broke through,” coach Sally Cole said. “He swam the 100 butterfly smarter than ever, staying controlled on the first 50 and saving something for the back half. That balance paid off in a big way.”
The 200 freestyle relay team of Gillespie, Meek, Ross and Kaminski placed second. Trailing Steilacoom at the halfway mark, Ross and Kaminski powered home to touch 0.26 seconds ahead of the Sentinels’ squad.
Kaminski secured a state berth with a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke, touching in a personal-best time of 56.52. Meek placed eighth and Jensen Wolfe ninth, both posting personal-best times.
Kaminski also earned an individual state qualification in the 100 freestyle, placing fourth in a personal-best 51.28. Gillespie added a sixth-place finish in 53.11, also a personal best.
The Riders closed finals with a third-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay as Ross, Jones, Kaminski and Van Denburg dropped five seconds from their previous best in a time of 3:27.94.
In the dive competition, Eli Warren placed fourth to secure a trip to state, scoring 235.20 — a 25-point improvement over his previous best. Liam Sholinder finished fifth with 224.55, and Jack Root placed seventh with 211.10. Both posted season-best scores.
Jones placed fifth in the 500 freestyle with a season-best 5:11.47.
“Thomas put together a smart, steady 500,” Cole said. “He set out to hold [31 seconds] per 50 [yards] and executed it perfectly. He was calm, controlled and confident from start to finish.”
Charlie Kasten added a ninth-place finish in the 500 freestyle with an eight-second personal best of 5:56.57.
“I knew Charlie had a sub-six-minute swim in him,” Cole said. “The real work was getting him to believe it. We drilled the splits in practice, and when it mattered, he trusted the plan and delivered.”
In the 200 individual medley, senior Isaac Meek placed seventh with a 4.5-second personal best. Freshman Jebow Nabua took 11th.
Port Angeles placed four swimmers in the 100 breaststroke finals. Nabua surged to fourth to earn a state berth with a 3.5-second personal best of 1:05.51.
“Jebow is something special,” Cole said. “He walked into this meet with a best of 1:08.97 and walked out at 1:05.51. He’s incredibly coachable, works on his technique every day and brings real effort to practice — all with a constant smile. It’s hard not to get emotional watching a swim like that.”
Killian Waknitz finished seventh in 1:08.24, a 3.6-second personal best. Gillespie placed eighth in 1:08.71 and Cooper Disque took 12th in a personal-best 1:12.40.
Bainbridge won district with 358 points, while Port Angeles had 241, far ahead of third-place Fife with 154.
Sequim relay teams had a pair of 10th-place finishes. The Wolves’ 400 freestyle relay team of Kaiden Sorenson-Walker, Nolan Stewart, Max Brouillard and Axel Swan came in 10th with a time of 5:37.41, while in the 200 freestyle relay, the same foursome came in 10th with a time of 2:31.21.
