A great weekend of high school swimming in Washington saw two state races come down to the final relay with multiple teams in contention. It happened in the big-school class 4A (read that story here), and also in the small-school 2A division.
In 2A, three teams headed in to the final relay with a claim on the state title. Sehome High led at 191, with Anacortes and Archbishop Murphy tied for second at 186, essentially meaning the winner of the final relay would win the meet.
Archbishop Murphy took the early lead on a 48.41 leadoff split from senior Austin Barnard, but Anacortes struck back with a 49.25 split from Michael Laws to take the lead at the halfway point.
Suddenly, Sehome charged back into the hunt with a 47.94 from freshman Zach Shenkin, putting them just .05 back of Anacortes with only the anchors left to swim.
Anacortes anchor Danny Schleh just barely edged Sehome’s Isaiah Grambo in splits, 48.06 to 48.08. But Archbishiop Murphy, who had fallen out of the race during the third leg, surged back with the best anchor by far, Stephen Boden‘s 46.32.
Ultimately, though, Boden’s heroics fell just short, as his crew finished third in 3:17.76. Just ahead, Anacortes touched out Sehome 3:16.14 to 3:16.21 for both the event title and the overall team trophy.
That undid relay wins by both of the other two programs. Sehome won the 200 free relay in 1:28.55 with a team of Josh Larson, Joseph Adams, Shenkin and Grambo. Grambo was 21.39 anchoring as the team just missed the 2A meet record by .05 seconds.
Archbishop Murphy, meanwhile, won the 200 medley relay to open the meet. Barnard, Boden, Tony Mikhail and Bryce Lewis-Smith went 1:39.92 to win by about a second.
A pair of 2A meet records fell on the day. Sammamish senior Jacob Tower knocked down the 50 free meet record in 21.10, while Steilacoom’s James Scott crushed the 100 breast record with a 57.50. Tower also won the 100 free in 47.78.
Archbiship Murphy won the most overall events, adding four individual titles to their relay win. Two of those came from Boden, who swept the 200 IM (1:54.12) and 500 free (4:35.31). Fellow senior Barnard also got a win, going 50.88 in the 100 fly, and a third senior, Elliott Forde, won diving with a score of 414.05.
Other event winners:
- Liberty senior Nick Klatt went 1:43.12 to win a touchout in the 200 free over Shorecrest’s Grant Heisey.
- Lindbergh sophomore James Buchanan won the 100 back, going 52.32.
Top 5 Teams
- Anacortes – 226
- Sehome – 225
- Archbishop Murphy – 218
- Shorecres – 159
- Steilacoom – 155
Just so you know Michael Laws was the guy who caught Anacortes up. And Nathan Mathes a freshman from Anacortes was the anchor from Anacortes who finished the 400 free relay