Girls swimming: Freshman Coffman leads Wolves at state finals

By Michael Dashiell • November 14, 2018 1:30 am
Sequim’s swim squad celebrates an 11th place finish at the class 2A state meet in Federal Way last week. They include relay teammates (from left) Sonja Govertsen, Mia Coffman, Sydney Swanson and Jasmine Itti. Photo by Madeline Patterson
Sequim’s swim squad celebrates an 11th place finish at the class 2A state meet in Federal Way last week. They include relay teammates (from left) Sonja Govertsen, Mia Coffman, Sydney Swanson and Jasmine Itti. Photo by Madeline Patterson

Powered by a pair of individuals and relay teams, Sequim’s girls swim squad earned a strong finish to their prep season at the state finals last week.

Freshman Mia Coffman posted two top-five finishes, Sonja Govertsen earned two finals swims and SHS’s relay teams racked up big points at the Class 2A swimming and diving championships held Nov. 9-10 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Coffman set personal bests in both of her races, scoring a fourth-place finish in the 500 freestyle final with a 5:27.38 mark, and added a fifth-place finish in the 200 free (2:02.81).

Coffman was the top freshman in the 500 free and second-fastest freshman in the 200 free, just 0.33 seconds back of Pullman frosh Melros Gilbert.

She placed seventh in the 500 free in the preliminaries but improved her time by more than three seconds in the finals. She was eighth in the 200 free preliminaries but cut her finals time by about two-and-a-half seconds to jump up four places.

Govertsen, a junior who was a state competitor in both 50 and 100 free events in 2017, took seventh in this season’s 50 free finals with a 25.30 finish, and wound up 11th in the 100 free after swimming the B finals in that event in 56.50 seconds.

Sequim’s 200 free relay team of Coffman, Govertsen, Jasmine Itti and Heidi Schmidt placed seventh with a 1:46.35 mark.

Competing in the B finals on Saturday, Sequim’s 200 medley relay team — Coffman, Govertsen, Itti and Sydney Swanson — placed 13th overall with a 2:01.10 finish.

Itti, a senior, also competed in the 50 free, placing 19th with a season-best 26.40 mark.

Sequim tallied 79 team points to place 11th as a team — SHS’s best finish since 2006, when the Wolves finished third. Sequim placed 18th in 2017 and 22nd in 2016.

Olympic League champ North Kitsap won the 2A team title with 277.5 points, with Liberty (Renton) second at 230 points and Sammamish third (266 points). Port Angeles was eighth. In all, 31 teams in the 2A classification scored points at the state meet.