MERCER ISLAND — The Port Angeles girls swim team finished third at the bidistrict swim and dive meet, sending multiple competitors to state.
Port Angeles had 167 team points to North Kitsap’s 196. Sammamish won the bidistrict championship with 332 points. Sequim finished sixth with 86 points and East Jefferson 10th with 47 points.
The Roughiders advanced all three relay teams to the “A” finals (top six competitors), setting the stage for a strong performance on the final day. Another six Port Angeles swimmers progressed, the “A” finals in individual events.
Harper McGuire was the standout performer for the Riders, earning 32 individual points, winning two individual titles and helping two relay teams finish in the top three.
McGuire won the bidistrict title in the 200 freestyle with a personal-best swim of 2 minutes, 2.13 seconds, improving her previous best by 3.75 seconds. She picked up another first place in the 500 freestyle, winning by a gap of eight seconds over second place with a time of 5:26.94. She improved her pervious best by 12 seconds.
The 400 freestyle relay team of Lynzee Reid, Danika Asgeirsson, Yau Fu and McGuire achieved the best relay finish, coming in second and collecting another 26 points with a season-best time of 3:57.35, a full 12 seconds better than third place.
The 200 medley relay team of Asgeirsson, Brooke St. Luise, Fu and Amayah Nelson added a solid fourth-place finish. They touched the wall at 2:04.98, five seconds ahead of the fifth-place team, securing 22 points for the Roughriders.
Fu showcased her prowess in the 100 butterfly, finishing third with a time 1:04.91. Fu’s swim added another 12 points to the Port Angeles team’s score.
Reid contributed nine points in the 200 freestyle with a sixth-place finish at 2:14.79, while Nelson mirrored the sixth-place finish (6:06.96) in the 500 freestyle, earning another nine points.
The 200 freestyle relay team of Lizzy Shaw, Asgeirsson, Fu and McGuire added another 24 points to the Riders’ score by earning a third-place finish with a time of 1:48.67.
In the 100 backstroke, Asgeirsson finished fifth to set a personal-best time of 1:07.39, bettering her time by 2.61 seconds and earning 10 points. Right behind her in sixth was teammate St. Luise (1:08.58), who claimed another nine points.
Sequim and East Jefferson
Sequim’s Ava Shinkle had a strong meet, finishing third in the 200 individual medley in a time of 2:24.31 and fourth in the 100 butterfly in a time of 1:07.47, earning 23 points.
The Sequim 400 freestyle relay team of Shinkle, Natalie Cross, Melia Nelson and Annie Ellefson came in fourth in 4:09.19, while Ellefson was fifth in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:14.85.
The Sequim 200 medley relay team (Nelson, Ellefson, Shinkle and Cross) won the “B” final, finishing seventh in a time of 2:07.47. Ellefson also won the B final in the 200 freestyle in a time of 2:14.6.
Cross finished ninth in the 500 freestyle (6:18.27) and Nelson was ninth in the 100 butterfly (1:14.52).
For East Jefferson, the Rivals’ 400 freestyle relay team (Tallulah Sebastian, Ursula Schmidt, Serena Hanby-Perless and Akeyla Behrenfeld) finished sixth in a time of 4:23.07, while their 200 freestyle relay team (also Sebastian, Schmidt, Hanby-Perless and Behrenfeld) won the “B” final in 1:55.04.
Schmidt won the “B” final in the 100 backstroke (1:10.36) and Behrenfeld was 11th in the 100 freestyle (1:01.24).
Top-four finishers out of the West-Central district qualify for state, but there are also numerous wild-card qualifiers to state, as well as swimmers and divers who have posted state-qualifying times during the season. Heat sheets for the state swim meet held at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way will be posted at www.wiaa.com later this week.
