EAST BREMERTON — Olympic’s Haakon Meyer was gassed as he came down the homestretch in the 500-yard freestyle. With every ounce of energy he had left, he pushed himself toward the finish line.

Olympic head coach Steve Henderson looked on, encouraging him to give it everything he had. Meyer needed to finish the race in 5:14 flat in order to become an Ironman. He touched the wall and the clock read 5:13.56.

After falling short by half a second during a Jan. 18 meet against Bremerton, Meyer became the second Olympic swimmer this year to reach Ironman status, joining teammate Ross Burchell, at the Olympic High School Swimvitational on Jan. 20.

“While I was practicing over the summer, my times were looking pretty close,” Meyer said. “So I just decided to go for it.”

The 500 free is not exactly Meyer’s specialty, nor does he particularly enjoy the long-distance swim, but he decided to make the sacrifice to reach his goal. His pace began to fall off about halfway through the race, dropping to a low of 33.24 seconds per 50 yards before finishing the final 50 in 31.84. Meyer is now the third swimmer in program history to achieve this feat.

“The last 150 is the worst,” Meyer said. “It’s so bad.”

Meyer was not the only swimmer to each Ironman status in the 500 free. Quincy Walker won the race with a time of 5:10.26, making him the fourth Ironman for Kingston this season along with Tim Gallagher, Ethan Fox and Aron Markow. Gallagher has also qualified as an Ironman in all three classifications — 2A, 3A and 4A.

But the Buccaneers’ best moment of the meet came in the very first race — in the 200 yard medley relay, Gallagher, Markow, Walker and Fox finished in 1:37.31, a time that bests the 2A state meet record of 1:37.35, set by Interlake in 2011. Gallagher set a state meet record last season in the 100 backstroke, could Kingston topple another record this year? We will find out in about three weeks.

“This is a coach’s dream,” Kingston head coach Mark VanHuis said. “Not only are these kids fast, but they are awesome teammates and they always put the team ahead of their own needs, and that is every coach’s dream.”

The swimvitational is generally the largest meet in Kitsap County as area swimmers compete against one another on a larger scale than a typical dual meet. Others participants included North Kitsap, Central Kitsap, Bremerton, South Kitsap, Klahowya, Sequim and Gig Harbor.

Brandon Anderson of North Kitsap, an Ironman himself, finished with the top time in the 200 yard individual medley (2:01.29), beating out James Sanchez of Central Kitsap.

Bremerton’s Nathan Rubie took home top honors in the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 52.35, which puts him within shouting distance of the 2A state meet record set by Alec Bernard of Archbishop Murphy in 2013 (50.24). Rubie is expected to contend for a state championship in the event in February.

Below are the overall top five local swimmers from each event. Due to the amount of teams and competitors, each event had multiple heats.

200-yard medley relay — Kingston “A” (Gallagher, Markow, Walker, Fox), 1:37.31; Olympic “A” (Dietrich Meyer, Haakon Meyer, Shelton Tiernann, Ryan Burchell), 1:45.15; North Kitsap “A” (Nathan Ramey, Alex Stefanski, Anderson, Morgan Chapman), 1:45.95; Central Kitsap “A” (Sanchez, Matyas Kisiday, Robert Thomasberg, Cameron Stimac), 1:47.10; South Kitsap “A” (Andrew Johnson, Jacob Dutt, Troy Conrad, Michael Freimann), 1:51.81.

200-yard freestyle — Lorenzo Cogoni, South Kitsap, 2:06.42; Gregg Hughes, South Kitsap, 2:07.85; Brandon Robinson, Klahowya, 2:07.92; Sean Markow, Kingston, 2:07.94; Gavin Smith, Klahowya, 2:12.24.

200-yard IM — Brandon Anderson, North Kitsap, 2:01.29; James Sanchez, Central Kitsap, 2:04.93; Robert Thomasberg, Central Kitsap, 2:05.46; Dietrich Meyer, Olympic, 2:06.28; Connor Swaney, Klahowya, 2:13.52.

50-yard freestyle — Haakon Meyer, Olympic, 22.87; Ross Burchell, Olympic, 23.25; Nathan Ramey, North Kitsap, 23.70; Rainer Meyer, Olympic, 23.91; Alex Stefanski, North Kitsap, 24.38.

100-yard butterfly — Nathan Rubie, Bremerton, 52.35; James Sanchez, Central Kitsap, 54.23; Robert Thomasberg, Central Kitsap, 56.53; Nathan Ramey, North Kitsap, 58.69; Alex Stefanski, North Kitsap, 59.86.

100-yard freestyle — Ethan Fox, Kingston, 48.29; Ross Burchell, Olympic, 49.85; Ryan Burchell, Olympic, 52.28; Shelton Tiernann, Olympic, 54.27; Rainer Meyer, Olympic, 54.74.

500-yard freestyle — Quincy Walker, Kingston, 5:10.26; Haakon Meyer, Olympic, 5:13.56; Duncan Platz, Kingston, 5:42.34; Lorenzo Cogoni, South Kitsap, 5:45.26; Gregg Hughes, South Kitsap, 5:45.84.

200-yard freestyle relay — Kingston “A” (Gallagher, Walker, Fox, Markow), 1:29.34; Olympic “A” (Ro. Burchell, R. Meyer, Ry. Burchell, D. Meyer), 1:33.71; Central Kitsap “A” (Sanchez, Kisiday, Stimac, Thomasberg), 1:36.40; North Kitsap “A” (Anderson, Chapman, Stefanski, Ramey), 1:36.90. Klahowya “A” (Robinson, Kyle Marquez, Sam Cook, Swaney), 1:42.38.

100-yard backstroke — Aron Markow, Kingston, 57.10; Andrew Johnson, South Kitsap, 1:00.56; Brandon Robinson, Klahowya, 1:04.16; Kyle Marquez, Klahowya, 1:05.10; Shelton Tiernann, Olympic, 1:06.05.

100-yard breaststroke — Tim Gallagher, Kingston, 1:00.08; Brandon Anderson, North Kitsap, 1:02.84; Matyas Kisiday, Central Kitsap, 1:03.25; Michael Freimann, South Kitsap, 1:06.17; Ryan Burchell, Olympic, 1:07.68.

400-yard freestyle relay — Kingston “A” (A. Markow, Fox, Walker, Gallagher), 3:16.50; Olympic “A” (Ro. Burchell, Tiernann, R. Meyer, H. Meyer), 3:33.48; Kingston “B” (Evan Yamane, S. Markow, Gunnar Jacobson, Platz), 3:53.44; South Kitsap “A” (Andrei Obinal, Andrew Carlos, Johnson, Cogoni), 4:04.71; Central Kitsap “A” (James Schofield, Noah Portis, Robert Chevrettte, Alex Huang), 4:19.49.

— Mark Krulish is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. He can be reached at mkrulish@soundpublishing.com.

South Kitsap’s Jacob Dutt swims the 100-yard freestyle in 59.25. Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group

Kyle Marquez of Klahowya at the Olympic Swimvitational on Jan. 20. (Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group)

Bremerton’s Spencer Gill placed ninth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 1:06.78. (Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group)

Aron Markow of Kingston swam a state-qualifying time of 57.10 in the 100-yard backstroke. (Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group)

Spencer Grubb of North Kitsap competes in the 100-yard breaststroke. He finished in 1:19.36. (Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group)

Central Kitsap’s Cameron Stimac swam in several races, including the 200-yard medley relay and 200-yard freestyle relay. Here, Stimac completes the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:16.31. (Mark Krulish/Kitsap News Group)