By Brenda Sexton
The Courier-Herald
There will be plenty to cheer about for Plateau area swim and dive fans at the Class 3A state meet as Sumner High brings its 200-yard medley relay, 200 freestyle relay and individuals Taylor Ditty, Sami Hendricks and Ashley Huynh; Enumclaw High sends Bella Davenport and Bonney Lake diver Kelsi Potterf shoots for a state title.
Competition begins at 7 p.m. Thursday with diving preliminaries and continues at 1:45 p.m. Friday with swim preliminaries at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Both swim and dive finals are slated for 10:15 a.m. Saturday.
Sumner’s relays and individuals had already cleared the hurdle into the state meet by posting qualifying times during the regular season, however, Friday and Saturday’s West-Central III Championships in Renton gave the Spartans a good look at the competition.
Defending state champion Kennedy Catholic cruised to the district title with 224 points. Mount Rainier finished second with 208. Sumner came in sixth with 121 points. Enumclaw placed 13th and Bonney Lake was 16th.
“It should be really good,” Sumner coach Dana Powers said of the competition and the camaraderie of the Plateau teams at that level. “What is so cool to see, and we as coaches don’t even tell the girls, is to go cheer for each other and for the other teams. They know the essence of the sport. They know how hard they each work to compete against each other and then they’re still spending that time behind that other block cheering.”
Ditty, a senior, and Hendricks touched the wall two and three in the 100 freestyle. Ditty posting a state time of 55.45 in the fianls, while Hendricks was right behind at 56.77. Hazen’s Lauren Kaufman won the event with a record-setting 53.30. Ditty’s preliminary time was a 54.65. Ditty goes into the meet with the state’s fourth-fastest time.
Ditty was second with a state time of 1:02.27 in the 100 backstroke. Her preliminary time was a 1:01.32. Emily Fenster of Kennedy Catholic won the event with a 58.56. Ditty’s time is the state’s sixth quickest.
Hendricks, a sophomore, finished second in the 50 freestyle with a final time of 25.76.
The dynamic duo, joined by freshman Huynh and junior Emma Thompson, also swam legs of the Lady Spartans’ second-place 200 freestyle relay, which raced to a state time of 1:45.54.
The foursome also posted a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay with a finals time of 1:56.20.
Powers said those relays bettered their times at the district meet and will pull a better seed come Friday.
Huynh was seventh in the 100 breaststroke and earned a last-minute allocation into the state meet. She also finished 10th in the 200 individual medley. The Spartans 400 freestyle relay of Lizzie Kressler, Katie Ekse, Jamie Morey and Kallan Gustafson placed 11th.
Thompson was close to a lane at state in the 100 butterfly with an eighth-place finish. She also finished 12th in the 100 backstroke.
Enumclaw
For the Hornets, it was freshman Davenport who made a splash. She earned her spot on the blocks at the state meet with a fourth-place finish in the 100 breaststroke. She finished with a time of 1:14.56.
Enumclaw sophomore Erica Bonthuis, a first-year diver, placed seventh, just missing the West-Central District’s the last spot. She scored 246.25 points in the finals. Marissa O’Quinn of Peninsula took the sixth and final spot with a score of 246.80.
Enumclaw senior Lindsay Bowden finished 10th in the 100 freestyle with a 1:00.03, while the Hornets’ 200 freestyle relay of Bowden, Erin Wessel, Erin Stucker and Carly Hinman finished eleventh.
Wessel, Stucker and Hinman all return to the team next season.
Bonney Lake
For Bonney Lake, Potterf, a senior, returns to state to take a shot at the 1-meter diving title. The Panther senior, who finished sixth at state last season, placed second Saturday at districts with a final seven-dive score of 330.35. Ashley Knox of Kennedy Catholic won with 339.70 points.
