The end of the high school swim season is nearly here with the 1A/2A, 3A and 4A state meets scheduled for this weekend as of press time.
Regional meets were cancelled due to the snowstorm that covered western Washington in over a foot of snow in some places, which forced tournament directors to take the top seven seed times from each district to the state tournament and then add in the wildcards.
The meet begins Friday with preliminary swims. 1A/2A leads off at 9:45 a.m., followed by 3A at 2 p.m. and 4A at 6:30 p.m. The finals begin Saturday at 9:15 a.m. with 1A/2A, followed by 3A at 2:10 p.m. and 4A at 7 p.m.
Here are some swimmers to watch:
Kingston relay teams — Kingston is looking for its second state titles in three years and the relays are worth big points. The Bucs have the top seed time in the 200-yard medley relay, a full three seconds ahead of Liberty, and the No. 2 times in the 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle relays behind Pullman. The 200 free relay should be an exciting one as Kingston, Pullman and Olympic’s seed times are separated by three tenths of a second.
Olympic relays — If the Trojans are going to get back to the podium this year, they too will need to do well in the relays. They are seeded fifth in the 200 medley and third in the 200 and 400 free relays.
Tim Gallagher, Kingston — Gallagher has the No. 1 seed time in the 200-yard freestyle, the 100-yard backstroke. The backstroke is his bread-and-butter, so he’s definitely the favorite to repeat there. In the 200 free, he’ll have to fend off Josh Joireman of Pullman and Warren Briggs of Liberty to win an important 20 points.
Ethan Fox, Kingston — Fox has the top seed in the 200 IM and the No. 2 time in the 100-yard breaststroke behind his teammate Aron Markow.
Aron Markow, Kingston — Markow is the top dog in the 100-yard breaststroke and also has the top time in the 50-yard freestyle, though he’ll have stiff competition in the latter event. The all-out sprint is always a coin toss and swimmers such as Brandon Anderson of North Kitsap and Dietrich and Rainer Meyer of Olympic and Mason Heaman of Klahowya, among others, will certainly be right there with Markow in a close race.
Dietrich Meyer, Olympic — The reigning 2A state champion in the 50 and 100 free is scheduled to return to both events. Meyer set the meet record in the 100 free last year with a time of 46.56.
Haakon Meyer, Olympic — The eldest Meyer brother will be a fixture on the relays and swim the 200 IM and the 100 free individually.
Nathan Ramey, North Kitsap — The University of Utah commit takes the final bow of his high school career. He enters the 200 freestyle with the No. 4 seed time and the 100 breaststroke with the third-best time.
Brandon Anderson, North Kitsap — The Vikings sprinter has a top four seed time in both the 50 and 100 free events.
Robert Thomasberg, Central Kitsap — By virtue of being in the same classification as Bainbridge, the defending 3A champions, nothing will come easy for any Cougars swimmers this weekend. Thomasberg will take part in the 200 free, where he is seeded No. 7, and the 100 butterfly.
James Sanchez, Central Kitsap — Sanchez will also take part in the 100 butterfly as well as the 100-yard backstroke, where he has the No. 7 seed time.
— Mark Krulish is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. He can be reached at mkrulish@soundpublishing.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKrulishKDN.
