Swimmers prepare for district and state meets
By JOHN GALBREATH Sports Editor
Pender Rink (center) was honored, along with seven other senior swimmers, by his parents Nancy and Phil at Friday’s Senior Day activities. Rink, an integral part of the local resurgence of boys’ swim locally over the past four years, has been unable to participate due to illness most of this season. PHOTO BY JOHN GALBREATH | STANWOOD/CAMANO NEWS
Stanwood’s boys’ swim team concluded the regular season with a tie and a loss to non-league opponents Lynden and Sehome, respectively, last week.
The two meets were used by cocoaches Nancy Rink and Art Wiper as preparation for the upcoming post-season JV championships, the district and state meets.
In the first showdown held last Tuesday at Lynden, the Sparts won eight of the 11 contested events but had to rally in the final event to catch the Lions, who had countered with more seconds and thirds.
“Our kids got into the meet as it went on,” said Wiper “and we came from behind in the 400 free relay to tie it 85-all at the end of the meet.”
Tim Hammer and Matt Roe each out-touched every other competitor in two of the day’s events.
Hammer took first in the 200 individual medley (2:10) and the 100 butterfly (57.8) while Roe won the 200 free (1:50) and the 500 free (4:59).
The other Spartans who won individual events were Tyler Swanson in the 100 free (53.1), Cole Farnsworth in the 100 breast (1:08) and Justin Murrell in the 100 backstroke (1:00).
Spartans Murrell, Swanson, Hammer and David Escobar combined to swim a first-place clinching 3:29 combined time in the 400 free relay to close out the meet and guarantee no less than a tie for the local aquanauts.
Grabbing second places against Lynden were two other relay squadrons – the foursome of James McCune, Swanson, Roe and Farnsworth in the 200 free relay (1:32) and the quartet of Murrell, David Escobar, Roe and Hammer in the 200 medley relay (1:19) - and Farnsworth with a 2 minute, 15 second time in the 200 IM.
Thirds went to Spartans Jacob Land in the 500 freestyle (6:10), Murrell in the 200 free (1:59), Mc- Cune in the breaststroke (1:09) and the 200 medley relay foursome of Land, Kevin Escobar, McCune and Farnsworth (1:56).
Individual fourths and fifths were earned by Hayden Giesbrecht (4th, 200 IM, 2:32), David Escobar (4th, 50 free, 24.5; 100 free, 53.6), Kevin Escobar (4th, 100 fly, 1:07) and Swanson (5th, 50 free, 25.0).
“Sehome was last year’s State AA champion,” coach Rink noted.
“This is a tough team. They have beaten us the last two years, but this is the closest we have come to matching them. We are proud of our team and the effort they showed today.”
In the 96-74 loss to the Sehome Mariners, Tyler Swanson won the 200-yard freestyle in 55.1 seconds, David Escobar took the 50 freestyle in a time of 24.1 seconds, Tim Hammer finished first in the 100 butterfly with a 58.2 mark while Matt Roe out-touched all 100 freestylers with a 49.7 time. That latter clocking was a state qualifier for Roe.
“We had 26 season-best times against Sehome,” Rink said, “and Tim Hammer missed a state qualifying mark in the 200 IM by fivetenths of a second and seven-tenths of a second in the 100 fly.
He will qualify at the district meet in two weeks.”
In the meantime, “Austin Wehr missed having a district time by five-tenths of a second. He will try to qualify at the JV championships this coming Thurs., Feb. 4.”
“Our kids are looking forward to the district and state meets with the strongest boys’ swim team Stanwood has ever had,” Wiper concluded.
