KINGSTON — Kingston sophomore swimmer Bryce Hoffer was nervous as he approached the block at the Class 2A state boys swimming and diving championships in Federal Way on Feb. 20.
Standing there watching the blue water, Hoffer waited. He had one thing racing through his mind: “Don’t let your team down.”
A season of extensive training, hard work, and post-season hopes were riding on the shoulders of four state swimmers. For the 200 medley relay team (Tim Gallagher, Ethan Fox, Bryce Hoffer and Hunter Parini), the pressure was on.
The Kingston boys swim team had come so far in the post-season. The Buccaneers won the Olympic League title for the first time, beating Port Angeles, the four-year title holder, by eight points. But their challenges weren’t over. The 2A competitors were swimming up stream as they advanced to districts at Hazen Pool in Renton on Feb. 13.
“Because we don’t dive, we automatically lose 30 points,” Hoffer said. “It was a very slim chance to win at districts. Everyone knows districts are intense.”
However, Kingston took home the Class 2A West Central District swimming and diving title.
“For first place, a lot of things had to go right for that to happen,” boys head swim coach Mark VanHuis said. “[But] I watched them time and time again in this season defy the odds. Our goal was to win leagues and place high at districts.”
The Buccaneers had one more goal: to send senior Hunter Parini out on a high note. State was his last high school swim championship. The team had to make his last run a good one.
Back at the Class 2A state boys swimming and diving championships, Parini, the anchor for the relay team, watched on with Gallagher who just completed the backstroke swim. Fox was currently speeding down the lane with a breaststroke. Hoffer was next. Parini would follow.
Hoffer took a deep breath and splashed his body with cold water as he positioned his goggles. He focused. His third-leg butterfly stroke of the 200 medley relay was important.
“All I could think about was getting a good time for Hunter,” he said.
As he looked down into the wake, he saw the tip of teammate Fox’s finger touch the wall. He sprung into the water like he was on fire.
“It was a blur. All I could think about was making a good time for Hunter,” Hoffer said.
As Hoffer completed his butterfly, he watched from above as Parini jumped into the lane to complete his freestyle swim.
The teams sped through the water, slicing through the wake. They flipped on the wall — three teams were neck and neck, Kingston included.
“I watched the water. I was still wet and trying to catch my breath,” Hoffer said. “I watched his arm rise up and smack the wall. I realized right there that we had won.”
In a quarter of a second, the Kingston boys swim team won first place with a time of 1:43.08, earning 178.5 points. They beat their district time by 0.24 seconds.
“Dropping that much time at state is a huge thing — that’s a lot,” Hoffer said.
The word that VanHuis used to describe the win: “stunned.”
“I knew they would make something happen for themselves and it was fun to sit back and watch them go through the process,” he said. “In the school’s history, we’ve never seen that before … I was simply stunned. We wrote history in that moment. We were able to do it and people will actually start to recognize KHS to be a contender.”
Earlier in the season, VanHuis said, “This is a young team with only a handful of upperclass men, but look for us to swim like a veteran squad.”
However, not even VanHuis knew exactly what this statement would mean in relation to the teams post-season success.
“I knew we were going to swim really well. I didn’t know we’d take district title and fourth at state,” he said. “I felt we had as good of chance as all of the other seven teams in that relay … I knew they had the potential, [but] at the end of the day they had to realize that potential and go for it and I’m very proud of them for that.”
As the team realized they had won, Hoffer described the moment as “numb.” He pulled Parini out of the pool as the Buccaneer team hugged and cheered, and headed off to the podium to claim their medals.
“Every step I took reminded me of every day of training and every day of pain from practice … It all melted away,” Hoffer said.
“Just to experience state … to stand up at the podium with your team, was the greatest feeling ever.”
VanHuis added, “There’s really no words to describe the season. I just look back and see one more thing that went our way … You could actually argue that we were a 10th of a second away from getting second at districts. They all stepped up to make to that happen. It was a total team effort.”
This year’s season is over, but Hoffer is still beaming.
“Just to know we’ve done everything to make our coach happy, to have that weight lifted was immense,” Hoffer said.
Although Hoffer thinks the team is in good hands for next year, he said the team has a reputation to live up to.”
Hoffer hopes to compete in an individual event at state next year.
”Swim is the only thing I have,” he said. “I love doing it and I’ll do it forever.”
VanHuis, who said he and the team reached an emotional pinnacle at state, told his team, “You wrote history. Congratulations. Live it. Enjoy it.”
He added, “There are really no words for it. In order to put it into perspective who actually had to witness it. I’m just really happy I was the one to see it.”
