MARYSVILLE The Lady Tomahawks hosted the Northwest 4A girls swim and dive championships Thursday, Nov. 2 to Saturday, Nov. 4 and came out right in the middle of the pack with a sixth-place finish out of 12 teams.
Junior diver Trang Vu not only qualified for the Nov. 10-11 state diving competition, but her 374.30 points also gave her an All-American consideration.
Freshman Sarah Clark, a retired gymnast, also qualified for state with a two-day total of 352.25 points.
The diving preliminaries consisted of eight dives Friday, Nov. 3 and the Saturday, Nov. 4 point total included three more dives for a total of 11.
Vu will be making her second consecutive trip to the King Country Aquatics Center in Federal way where she finished 16th in the 2005 finals.
I guess Im excited, she said with a large smile. My goal this year is do better and place in top-8.
Clark said she was a gymnast for 11 years before being talked into diving her first year at M-PHS.
Coming into the season I didnt know what it would take to go to state, she said,
I am pretty happy. I had a pretty good standing after yesterday (the preliminaries) and felt good about my performance overall.
Sophomore Kami Girard broke a school record in the 100-yard backstroke that had stood for five years.
Girards second-place time of 1:01.96 automatically qualified her to compete among the best swimmers in the state.
I felt really good today, she said afterward. I felt really strong and relaxed and just went out there and had fun. I just try and keep a good mindset about things.
The 200-yard medley relay team of junior Michaela Caldwell, Girard, freshman Leah Gordon and sophomore Amanda Vincelette placed sixth with a time of 2:03.66.
Senior captain Becky Corle earned a wild card entry in the 100-yard fly and the 100-yard backstroke at the JV Championships Oct. 26 at Snohomish High School.
Coach Jaci Legore-Hodgins said the three-day meet was great overall and was proud of her squad.
Our freshmen put in great shows on Thursday (Nov. 2) and Saturday (Nov. 4), Legore-Hodgins said.
Megan Shoemaker dropped time in her 200 Freestyle and made it into the top-18, which was really an accomplishment. Same for Leah Gordon in the breaststroke. To be a freshman and know you are top-18 in your event in such a powerhouse league as Wesco 4A is really something.
Our girls had a great meet overall. The same goes for our sophomores Amanda Vincelette and Emily Reinig.
Emily was 20th in the 50 Free. Amanda was top-18 and both had respectable swims. Both girls were top-18 in the 100 free.
Legore-Hodgins also spoke highly of the 1-2 performance of Vu
and Clark.
She said Vu has only been diving for one and one-half years and the team is excited to have junior Kalyn Thomas and sophomore Liz Kuljis back for next year.
The 4A state competition is scheduled for Nov. 10-11 at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.