District qualifying times were had left and right on Sept. 16 at the Covington Aquatic Center when Kentlake faced off against South Puget Sound League North division rival Kentwood.
The Conquerors won the dual meet, 103-83, but before the diving portion of the program began the Falcons had several district qualifying times in the books.
First the Falcons kicked off the meet with a first and third finish in the 200-yard medley relay, easily marking a district time, and coming just four-tenths away from the state mark.
Kentlake sophomore Emily Tanasse, building off an impressive freshman season, clocked in a 2 minute, 17.20 seconds 200-yard individual medley race, which was plenty fast for a district qualifying time and little more than two-tenths of a second off the state qualifying time.
Teammate Kyndal Phillips touched the wall in the 200 IM right behind Tanasse in second place at 2:17.31, also a district qualifying time.
Junior Sarah Dougherty had a good meet, too, surging at the end of the 200 free to win the race and beat out Kentwood’s Paige Morris with a time of 2:07.26, also district qualifying time. She then went out and put together a wire-to-wire victory in the 100 backstroke in 1:02.72, easily qualifying for districts and just shy of the state mark of 1:02.40.
Tanasse added a second place finish in the 100 free, Natalie Lesnick of Kentwood picked up a district qualifying time when she touched the wall in 5:50.7 in the 500 free to take first place. Drew Vagen finished in third for the Conks in the 500 free. Lesnick later finished third in the 200 IM.
Marissa Dyrdahl took second in the 50 free, posting a district qualifying time of 25.95, just hundreths off the state qualifying time of 25.20. She followed that up with a 56.06 time in the 100 free and another event victory.
Lindsey Krause won the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:16.82, just beating out Kentlake’s Mekena Eha, who touched the wall in 1:16.95.
It was the battle in the relays that made the difference for Kentwood.
The Conks took first and second in the 200 free relay then second and third in the 400 free relay.
Kentwood posted district qualifying times in both relays.
Kentlake lost its first meet to Mount Rainier, a newcomer to the SPSL North after it moved from the Seamount League, while Kentwood first faced Kentridge.
Both teams will swim at the Autumn Relays at Rogers High in Puyallup on Friday then resume their league schedules with Kentwood taking on Mount Rainier and Kentlake hosting Kent-Meridian on Sept. 30.
