Olympic League standings (final)

Team Rec.

Kingston 6-0

Olympic 5-1

North Kitsap 4-2

Klahowya 2-4

Bremerton 2-4

Sequim 1-5

Port Angeles 1-5

Sequim’s swim squad showed they are a team on the rise, even in the face of significant tests — in and out of the water.

The Wolves finished the regular season Jan. 25 with a 92-77 loss at North Kitsap, a marked one-year improvement after the Wolves fell to NK by 56 points (106-50) last season.

Not bad for a swim crew dealing with first semester finals in their classrooms.

“We lost … but it was understandable because of the stress from finals,” Sequim coach Anita Benitez said. “Now that I know that we are swimming during finals, I will try next year to schedule our meets around finals.”

Eleven swimmers set personal bests against the host Vikings last week including Kaleb Needoba, whose 500 free (6:13.12) was 14 seconds off his previous best and just 0.12 from a district qualifying time.

Jax Thaxton cut a second from his 100 free time (54.86) and is nearing the state meet-qualifying mark of 51.40.

Also setting personal bests were: Sam Frymeyer in both 500 free (7:21.65, by one second) and 100 backstroke (1:19.96, by three seconds); Liam Braaten in the 100 free (1:40.50, by six seconds) and another four seconds from his 50 free (44.53); Liam Payne in the 200 individual medley (2:34.06, by three seconds); Murray Bingham (2:17.07, by one second) and Sean Weber (2:36.72, by two seconds) in the 200 free; Zen Graham (1:32.68, by five seconds) and Anthony Thompson-Porazzo (1:36.44, by 0.11 of a second) in the 100 butterfly; Deven Biehler in the 100 free (1:00.28, by one second) and Jordan Hurdlow in the 50 free (31.27, by two seconds).

In the 2016-2017 season, Wolves were out-scored by opponents by an average of 64.7 points; this year, they trimmed that gap to 28.2 points and earned their first meet victory since 2011.

The Wolves were scheduled to compete in the “Last Chance” Divisional Meet on Jan. 30 in Port Angeles — results were not available at press time.

Looking ahead

Sequim swimmers and diver Mathew Craig compete in the West Central District 1A/2A meet Feb. 9-10 at Hazen High School in Renton. Top event finishers, automatic state qualifiers and an unspecified number of “wild card” entries move on to the state 1A/2A meet, scheduled for Feb. 16-17 at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.