It seems like Kentlake’s boys swim team has bounced back after a couple of bumps during the regular season thanks to a fourth place finish at the South Puget Sound League meet at Rogers High School Jan. 28-29.
Beamer, which took second place in 2010, won the league championship meet with a score of 235, while Kentridge took second and league newcomer Mount Rainier finished third.
The Falcons scored 155 points on the strength of its relays as well as strong individual swims from senior David Dougherty, Christian Knoblock, Tanner Keeling-Garcia, and Erik Fulmer.
Dougherty finished sixth in the 200 yard freestyle and 13th in the 500 free.
Knoblock, in addition to anchoring the 200 medley relay, finished second in the 50 free and sixth in the 100 free.
Fulmer took fourth in the 100 free and third in the 100 back, touching the wall in 57.59 seconds, an automatic state qualifying time.
Keeling-Garcia, who battled mononucleosis during the season and missed a couple of dual meets, won the 100 butterfly in 56.62 seconds and touched the wall first in the 100 breaststroke clocking in at one minute, two seconds, a state qualifying time.
To kick off the meet, Kentlake’s 200 medley relay of Keeling-Garcia, Adam Felcyn, Fulmer and Knoblock, took third with a district qualifying time of 1:47.22.
The Falcons ended the meet with another third place relay, this time with Knoblock leading off, along with Dougherty, Fulmer and Keeling-Garcia anchoring the 400 free relay that posted a state qualifying time of 3:25.46.
Meanwhile, Tahoma finished sixth overall, a significant improvement over last year’s placing.
The Bears 200 medley relay team of Stephen Shin, Austin Sweeney, Michael Cox and Mitch Halbert, finished fifth. Tahoma’s 200 free relay team of Kyle Holmes, Brandon Clem, Josh Benson and Tyler Campbell finished 10th and will be eligible for the district meet.
Shin, whom coach Kati Stanford said was getting over an illness during the league meet, finished sixth in 200 medley and fourth in the 100 back with a time of 57.72.
Halbert finished sixth in the 50 free with a district qualifying time of 24.1 seconds and also qualified for districts with a 12th place finish in the 100 free.
Cox touched the wall in fourth place in the 100 fly, stopping the clock a 57.89 seconds, good enough to move on to the district championship meet this weekend at Rogers.
Divers Ben Price and Stephen Griffith finished sixth and seventh respectively for Tahoma. Price has already qualified for state.
Tahoma’s 400-free relay wrapped up the meet with a sixth place finish with Cox leading off, followed by Halbert, Holmes and Shin anchoring.
A young Kentwood squad struggled at the league meet, finishing in 11th place, with diver Jesse Dehnert providing a significant bright spot as he captured the league title with 328 points, more than 20 points ahead of the second placer diver.
Freshman Kevin Molloy finished 13th and posted a district qualifying time of 1:00.77 for the Conquerors in the 100 fly and touched the wall in sixth in the 100 breaststroke, also good enough to move him on to the district meet.
