With the first half of their schedule behind them, several Tomahawk swimmers are showing big improvements, according to coach Jaci Legore Hodgins.
The swim squad followed up a 110-73 win over Everett Sept. 27 with a top-10 showing at the Kamiak Invitational two days later at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, where the state swim competition will take place.
M-P placed ninth at Kamiak out of a field of 30 teams, improving two places over their showing last year.
One thing were really proud to announce is that we did it without divers because there was a power outage at the meet, Legore Hodgins said.
The power outage delayed the meet and, with the homecoming dance that night, a majority of the team departed before the competition finished.
Among the swimmers who stayed was co-captain Kami Girard, the only Tomahawk to win an event. Girard had a stellar, stellar day, according to Legore Hodgins. The junior won the 100 backstroke and took fourth out of 138 swimmers in the 100 freestyle in a personal best time.
Girards 56.39 time in the freestyle was just four-tenths of a second from a state-eligible time in the event, and her 1:02.98 backstroke was an even smaller .02 seconds from breaking the M-P school record she set in 2005.
Its so exciting that you can just tell that Kami has reached a new level, both mentally and physically. You could see it in her eyes on Saturday. She was so confident and just knew she was going to have a great day, Legore Hodgins said. It didnt impact her, it didnt affect her at all that it was homecoming that night or that we had a two-hour power outage. She was just ready to swim when it was time to do it.
Against Everett, Legore Hodgins gave the girls the chance to try out different events, which was how freshman Ava Commissariat got the opportunity to shine. The one-time JV swimmer got the nod to swim the 100 backstroke at Forest Park pool and placed second in the event to junior Melinda Blomberg.
What happened with Ava was she dropped all this time. She swam this great race, I want to say it was (Sept. 20), against Snohomish, Legore Hodgins said. Now Avas breaking into being one of the fastest backstrokers and shes not that far from a district time.
Divers Sarah Clark and Kalyn Thomas went 1-2 against Everett. Other notable finishes that day include firsts in the medley and 400 freestyle relays, wins in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke by freshman Amy Renslo and wins in the 200 individual medley and 500 freestyle by Girard.