Central Kitsap comes out on top at CKSD Meet

EAST BREMERTON — Central Kitsap went toe-to-toe on Tuesday afternoon with the defending 2A state champions at the annual Central Kitsap School District swim meet and came away victorious.

The Cougars edged out the Trojans 89-81 and easily bested Klahowya 126-33 at the Olympic Aquatic Center to claim district bragging rights for the season.

Although they only won four events outright, they scooped up plenty of second, third and fourth place finishes to pick up crucial points.

“We’ve got that middle depth that we never used to have,” said Central Kitsap head coach Whitney Dodd.

Senior James Sanchez picked up his third state qualifying time of the season, winning the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 48.67 seconds. Sanchez had already gotten his state times in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke, so he is nearly halfway to Ironman status.

“This is our third meet and this is his third state time,” Dodd said. “I don’t think he’s ever gotten them that fast in the season, so I’m really excited.”

Sanchez also swam to victory in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:03.06. Ethan Hutton took home top honors in the 100-yard backstroke (1:04.76), and the “B” 400-yard freestyle relay team of Kai Boydon, Damien Miller, Alex Huang and Dominic Fox ended up winning the event after Central Kitsap’s “A” relay was disqualified.

The Trojans had their share of star power on display at the meet, though they didn’t boast the Cougars’ depth.

Olympic’s 200-yard medley relay (Rainer Meyer, Stephan Anthony, Ryan Burchell and Dietrich Meyer, 1:44.01) and 200-yard freestyle relay (Ranier Meyer, Burchell, Anthony and Dietrich Meyer, 1:33.87) both qualified for the state tournament with victories in their respective events.

The Meyer twins also shined in the individual events. Dietrich Meyer qualified for state in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:06.21, winning that event. He also won the 200-yard freestyle (1:55.39). Rainer Meyer picked up a pair of state times in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle sprints with times of 22.25 in the 50 and 49.33 in the 100.

Junior Ryan Burchell also picked up a state time in the 100-yard butterfly (55.06).

Olympic knows it will be tough to defend its state crown after losing half of last year’s super six to graduation, but those who remain along with a few new additions should help keep them more than competitive.

“Everything kind of aligned last year,” said Dietrich Meyer of last year’s team.

And despite winning a state title last season, the Trojans were actually denied an Olympic League championship. Olympic was beaten by Kingston in their lone dual meet.Both teams lost some of their top swimmers to graduation, but those two teams, along with North Kitsap, still seem to have the upper hand in the league race.

“We’re looking for a league title this year,” said Rainer Meyer. “NK and Kingston are both going to be tough, so we’ll stack against them and hopefully we’ll get the dub.”

Klahowya took home second place in the 200-yard medley relay thanks to the efforts of Braden Robinson, Morgan Seidel, Alex Oathout and Wyatt Vertefeuille. The foursome put up a time of 2:00.21.

Oathout also took second in the 200-yard individual medley (1:03.07) and Braden Robinson finished second in the 100-yard backstroke (1:05.55).

Damien Miller takes home second in the 200-yard freestyle, helping Central Kitsap win the CKSD Tri-Meet with Olympic and Klahowya on Tuesday. (Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group)