BELLINGHAM – Both of the Sehome and Anacortes girl’s swim teams went into this final dual meet with unblemished, 6-0 records. But, longtime Mariner coach Don Helling knew what to expect when facing the Seahawks.
“We have no illusions about this Thursday’s showdown with the other undefeated team in the conference,” Helling said in an email on Tuesday. “Anacortes is loaded with multiple state qualifiers, and our team will have to swim and dive about our recent dual meet competition levels for us to get close to them.”
Coach Helling knew what he was talking about, and his team performed brilliantly, but Anacortes still came out on top with a 115-71 victory at the Arne Hanna Aquatic Center on Thursday.
The best swim of the meet for Sehome was the 200-Yard Individual Medley Relay team with a time of 2:01.03 which gave them an all important state-qualifying time going into the district championship. The team consists of seniors Joyce Kim, Emily Welsh, Sarah Leung and sophomore Ana Zurcher. The split time that Leung put in was particularly impressive.
The Mariner divers continued their winning ways, finishing first, second and third. They will go into the district meet favored, and should be able to bring home big points for the team.
Event Winners:
200-Yard Medley Relay: Anacortes – 2:00.26 (Lauren McClintock, Lindsay Brown, Ashleigh Merrill and Sabine Hambleton). 200-Yard Freestyle: Hailey Claridge, Anacortes – 2:07.06. 200-Yard Individual Medley: Lindsay Brown, Anacortes – 2:21.37. 50-Yard Freestyle: Ashleigh Merrill, Anacortes – 26.28. 1-Meter Diving: Martina Klecka, Sehome – 206.35. 100-Yard Butterfly: Ellie Snowman, Anacortes – 1:11.73. 100-Yard Freestyle: Ashleigh Merrill, Anacortes – 57.73. 500-Yard Freestyle: Savannah Sparks, Anacortes – 5:50.60. 200-Yard Freestyle Relay: Aancortes – 1:50.44 (Savannah Sparks, Fiona Watkins, Hailey Claridge and Ashleigh Merrill). 100-Yard Backstroke: Hailey Claridge, Anacortes – 1:03.76. 100-Yard Breaststroke: Lindsay Brown, Anacortes – 1:12.53. 400-Yard Freestyle Relay: Anacortes – 4:04.78 (Hailey Claridge, Lauren McClintock, Ellie Snowman and Annaly Ellis).
