Boys Swim/Dive: Sequim High crew sets 10 personal bests at league final

Published 3:42 pm Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Sequim Gazette staff

For all but one Wolf — or possibly a second — the waters are still.

Most members of Sequim’s swimming and diving squad capped their 2015-2016 season with the Olympic League meet in Port Angeles on Feb. 2, setting more than 10 personal best marks or relay splits in the process.

Sequim diver Mathew Craig is headed to districts with plenty of momentum after placing second with 310.30 points, a season-best by 45 points and a mark that nearly earned the sophomore an automatic state meet berth.

There he may be joined by teammate Liam Payne, who shed 3.3 seconds off of his best 100 breaststroke to 1:21.84 and placed fourth at the league meet.

He’ll submit his time for a wild-card entry into the district meet, swim/dive coach Linda Moats said.

The West Central District meet is Feb. 12-13 at Hazen High School in Renton.

Each of Sequim’s 50 free competitors saw improvement, including Alex Berikoff (27.77), Christian Goodrich (27.87), Brandon Grow (29.79) and David Calderon (30.48). Grow’s effort was a two-second improvement.

Berikoff (1:07.12) and Grow (1:07.34) each improved their 100 free times, Berikoff by 2.5 seconds and Grow by four.

Sequim’s Brendon Jack completed his first 11-dive meet, placing fifth with 201.15 points.

Moats said she was impressed with the Wolves’ 200 free relay team that came up about 1.2 seconds short of a district meet-qualifying time; each swimmer broke 28.7 seconds in their legs of the relay.

“It was a great effort by the team,” Moats said.

Goodrich added another best time in the 100 backstroke by better than two seconds, finishing in 1:15:94.

“He had a great race — he implemented some last-minute technique modifications and it really paid off,” Moats said.

Knights top Wolves in regular season final

With a depleted lineup, Sequim’s Wolves couldn’t muster enough points to knock off league foe Bremerton on Jan. 28.

The visiting Knights topped Sequim 113-57, with the Wolves setting more than a half-dozen personal bests and posting two first-place finishes and seven second-place efforts.

Christian Goodrich shed 1.2 seconds off his 100 free time to 1:02.33 and two seconds off his 50 butterfly leg to help SHS’s 200 medley relay improve overall by three seconds.

Liam Payne and Wendall Lorenzen went 1-2 in the 100 breaststroke.

Lorenzen improved his 200 free best by 12 seconds to 2:29.22 while Payne took nearly a second off his 50 free best, to 30.17.Sequim diver Mathew Craig set a season-best with 170.40 points while teammate Brendon Jack saw improvement, scoring 156.25 points for second place.

Alex Berikoff bettered his 100 butterfly time to 1:21.63, a one-second improvement.