FEDERAL WAY — The Port Angeles girls swimming and diving team concluded one of its best seasons ever by capturing eighth place in state Saturday.
“We swam really fast today,” Port Angeles coach Rich Butler said right after the end of the 2A state championships at the King County Aquatic Center on Saturday.
“It was exciting to watch.”
The Roughrider 200-yard medley relay team claimed second in state, missing the school record by .15 of a second while the 400 freestyle relay took fourth and senior Tracie Macias finished her high school career with a fourth-place finish in her top event, the 100 backstroke.
The Riders finished in eighth place with 118 points out of 46 2A schools and 218 swimming and diving athletes.
It helped when the 200 medley relay team gathered up 34 points right off the bat in the first event by taking second in 1 minute, 54.63 seconds, just off the school record.
There were two underclassmen on that relay.
Members of the medley relay were junior Ashlee Reid, freshman Carter Juskevich, Macias and sophomore Audra Perrizo.
Macias, who swam on two state relay teams and two individual events, claimed fourth place in the 100 back in 1:01.22.
Reid, meanwhile, just missed the backstroke finals by taking ninth place in the preliminaries but held onto that top consolation spot in the Saturday finals to finish ninth in a time of 1:03.05.
Reid also was ninth, winning the consolation finals, in the 100 free in 57.03.
Macias concluded her individual events by taking 12th place in the 200 free in 2:06.68.
The Port Angeles 400 free relay captured fourth place in 3:48.56 with Juskevich, junior Brooke Sires, Reid and Macias.
Juskevich has quite the high school career ahead of her as she took eighth place in the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.12.
In addition to the strong performance in the 100 breast finals, Juskevich also earned 13th place in the 200 individual medley in 2:25.06.
Port Angeles diver Elizabeth Livesay, meanwhile, moved up in the finals after a rough day in the preliminaries Friday.
Livesay ended up taking 16th place with a total score of 164.35.
“That was a pleasant surprise,” Butler said.
The Riders also had a relay team and an individual just miss making it into Saturday’s finals.
The 200 free relay team finished in 18th place in the preliminaries Friday with a time of 1:54.58 with team members Sires, junior Roisin Cown-Kuist, senior Lexie Pankowski and Perrizo.
Sires, meanwhile, took 18th in the 200 free in 2:11.23.
The Riders will lose only two seniors from this strong team, Macias and Pankowski.
But Macias, an all-around standout swimmer who competes in three relay teams and several individual events, will leave the program with a lot of meet points.
“That makes a hole in our program,” Butler said.
Port Townsend swimming team
The 1A Redskins, meanwhile, had one swimmer finish in the top eight and another perform well at the 2A championships.
Sophomore Rose Ridder captured eighth place in the 50 freestyle in 26.15 while teammate Serena Vilage, a senior, took 18thplace in 26.93 and just missed the finals cut Friday.
Ridder also earned 10th place in the 100 free, coming in right behind Ashlee Reid of Port Angeles, with a time of 58.24.
The Port Townsend 200 free relay also captured 10th place, in a time of 1:48.21 with Vilage, sophomore Tanner Matthew, senior Olivia Cremeans and Ridder.
Vilage, meanwhile, finished her prep career with a 12th-place finish in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:13.63.
The Redskin 400 free relay team just missed the finals by taking 18th place in the preliminaries with a time of 4:12.53 with Cremeans, Matthew, senior Darby Flanagan and sophomore Sarah Allen.