Washington 3A Boys State Championships
- February 15-17, 2024
- King County Aquatic Center
- Federal Way, Washington
- Full Results
- Results also on Meet Mobile: “2024 3A Boys State Swim/Dive Champs”
WIAA has three levels of boys’ high school swimming: 4A, the biggest schools, 3A, the middle-sized schools, and 1A/2A, the smallest schools.
Final Scores (Top 5):
- Lakeside – 254 points
- O’Dea – 170 points
- Bainbridge Island – 169 points
- Bellevue – 167 points
- Shorecrest – 158 points
After a 2nd place finish at the 2023 championships, Lakeside claimed the 2024 Washington 3A state title. They posted a dominant win in Federal Way, winning by 84 points over O’Dea. Lakeside’s last state title came in 2013, so the performance today marked their first in 11 years. The defending champions from last year, Mercer Island, tied for 7th with 131 points.
It was a fun battle for 2nd place throughout the entire meet, as Bainbridge Island (169 points), Bellevue (167 points), and Shorecrest (158 points) were all in contention heading into the final few events.
Lakeside senior Alvin Zhang was pivotal in the team title pursuit, claiming two individual wins on the day. His first came in the 50 freestyle, where he clocked a best time of 21.25 to top the field by over two tenths of a second. He later added the 100 fly win to his resume, posting a time of 49.83 as the only swimmer to dip under the 50-second barrier.
While Zhang was the only individual winner for Lakeside, depth is what prevailed them to victory. Senior Ben Scott (33 points) and sophomore Ulee Klebeck (29 points) provided an additional 62 individual points to the 40 produced by Zhang, essentially sealing the meet. Scott was 3rd in the 200 IM and 2nd in the 500 free, while Klebeck was 5th in the 200 free and 4th in the 500.
Grant Huston, a senior at Gig Harbor, grabbed two individual state titles. His first victory came in the 200 free, where he won by 2.5 seconds in 1:39.29. He took the race out strong, flipping in 47.54 through the first 100 before closing in 51.75. He doubled up on freestyle wins in the 100-yard distance, clocking 45.41 en route to that win.
O’Dea senior Jack Skarda joined the double event winner club with two wins of his own. The first win was in the 200 IM, where his 1:51.09 was enough to clip Ingraham’s Kjell Cady by 0.29 at the finish. Skarda was a much quicker 1:50.37 during the preliminaries, but did drop time from prelims to finals in the 100 breaststroke for his 2nd victory. There, he touched in 54.48 to represent the sole swimmer under the 56-second threshold. Skarda’s victories represent title defenses too, as he won both events a year ago.
Cady would later grab an individual win in the 500 free, touching in 4:30.60 to clear the field by over 8 seconds. Aiden Hammer, who won both the 200 and 500 free events a year ago, did not swim at the meet.
Skarda would end his meet with a split of 47.68 on the O’Dea 400 freestyle relay, which claimed the state title by just 0.33. Lakeside was 2nd in the race, with Alvin Zhang splitting 46.03 on the anchor to try and run down O’Dea. It wouldn’t be enough as August Pierce held him off with a 46.87 split, touching in 3:09.60 at the wall.
Bellevue opened the meet with a win in the 200 medley relay, where the squad of Leo Choi (24.64), Christian Wong (25.26), Bob Frazer (22.47), and Cole Sevier (21.37) got to the wall in a time of 1:33.74. They were slightly faster in the prelims (1:33.66) but still won the final by almost two seconds.
Other Event Winners:
- Liberty sophomore Alexander Nemirovsky clocked 51.10 to secure the 100 back state title, facing a tough charge from both Jack Sieckhaus (51.16) and Jack Andrew (51.26).
- Bainbridge Island stopped the clock in 1:26.13 to win the 200 freestyle relay, with Robbie Nakhuda (22.03), Jason Geddes (21.86), Mathias Bang-Knudsen (21.30), and Elias Dean (20.94) comprising their quartet.
- Stanwood sophomore Levi Steris posted the fastest 50 free (28.10) and 50 back (36.36) times of the adaptive category.
- Cheney junior Alma Smith scored 401.90 points to dominate the 1m diving competition, defending his title from last year.
Bainbridge was low key carried by their anchor