No diving board? No problem.
Sequim High junior Mathew Craig is headed to his third consecutive state 2A swimming/diving meet and this year he’ll be joined by the Wolves 400 free relay team.
Craig scored a personal-best 300 points on his way to a third-place finish at the West Central District, held Feb. 11 at Lindbergh High School in Renton. Craig is Sequim’s lone diver this year and trains with Port Angeles and Crescent High divers at PA’s William Shore Pool, after the Sequim YMCA removed its diving board.
Craig will compete at the state meet, set for Feb. 17-18 at the Federal Way Aquatic Center.
Also earning a ticket to the state meet are senior Christian Goodrich, sophomores Alex Berikoff and Liam Payne, and freshman Jax Thaxton, who placed 10th overall in the 400 free relay with a 4:02.25 finish at districts.
The quartet was fourth in the B Final of the 400 relay finals at the 1A/2A West Central District meet at Hazen High School in Renton, receiving a wild card berth to the state meet.
”The 400 free relay was the big surprise for us — most of the season the boys didn’t want to swim the … relay because it was at the end of the meet and they felt tired from their previous events,” Sequim coach Linda Moats said.
“None of them were swimming their best. At the district prelims (on Feb. 10), this all changed. Even though two of the four relay members swam the backstroke event shortly before the relay, they dug deep and dropped nine seconds off their best time (to 4:09.04).”
But the Wolves had even more in store a day later, as all four swimmers posted best splits in their 100 free legs.
“For the finals, the team captain, Christian Goodrich, gave the relay team a pep talk. They dug deeper and dropped another seven seconds off their best time (and) 16 seconds all together over two days,” Moats said.
“It was great to watch them swim with determination and achieve what they believed they couldn’t,” she said. “It just goes to show you that it’s better to think ‘I haven’t yet’ rather than ‘I can’t.’”
A districts, Sequim saw two other relays and two individuals compete. Thaxton raced to a 14th place finish in the 100 backstroke (1:09.64) while Goodrich was 24th (1:18.95) in the same event.
Sequim’s 200 medley relay (Thaxton, Payne, Goodrich, Berikoff) trimmed two seconds off a previous best in the preliminaries but slowed in the finals, placing 11th (2:06.48).
SHS’s 200 free relay (Thaxton, Payne, Goodrich, Berikoff) dropped a few tenths of a second off its best during preliminaries and dropped another second during the finals, placing 12th (1:47.83).
The Wolves tied for 13th overall in the 18-team district meet. Kingston took first place with 234 team points; Steilacoom was second and Lindbergh was third.
