Dave Baughman says he has always had good swimmers in his 12 years as Stadium High boys coach.
But in the West Central District 4A meet, his team was always chasing Wilson and Gig Harbor.
Wilson, a perennial state swimming power, competes in Class 3A these days. And these days, Gig Harbor is chasing Stadium.
“A wonderful day,” Baughman said after his Tigers powered to the school’s first West Central boys championship at Curtis Aquatic Center.
Stadium compiled 346.5 points to 299 for second-place Gig Harbor and 244 for host Curtis in third place.
The Tigers had one of the meet’s top individual performers in double winner Logan Rysemus and can lay claim to the day’s only district-record time – the Tigers’ 200-yard medley relay team broke the record set in 1999.
“The guys swam out of their skulls,” Baughmann said. “They deserve everything they get. They were fabulous.”
Rysemus led off the first leg of the Tigers’ medley relay and was followed byteammates Mattheus Siqueirce, Taylor Wright and Andrew Lackman. The quartet’s time of 1 minute, 37.89 seconds nudged aside Wilson’s old mark of 1:37.91.
Baughmann and other coaches praised the pool at the new Curtis facility.
“Is it fast?” Baughman said. “All our relays had their best times in this meet. All our individuals had their best times in this meet. So yeah, it’s fast.”
Rysemus, a junior, won the 200 individual medley in 1:54.42, just missing the meet record by Joon Youm of Decatur in 2003.
Rysemus also won the 100 backstroke in 50.38.
Stadium’s 400-yard freestyle relay team – Cameron Hartwig, Stefan Kubeja, Andrew Lackman and Rysemus – won in 3:18.9 to cinch the team title for the Tigers.
Chase Bublitz, a Kentridge sophomore, was the only other double champ, winning the 50 freestyle (21.83) and the 100 butterfly (53.56).
Gig Harbor was led by sophomore Erik Nielsen, the Tides’ only individual champion (100 freestyle). He anchored the Tides’ winning 200 freestyle relay team (with Andrew Van Camp, Daniel Arroyo and Evan Indahl).
Other district champions were diver Jesse Labeda-Sutton of South Kitsap (406.95 points); Jason Soria of Central Kitsap in the 100 breaststroke; and Brendan Weiner of Central Kitsap in the 500 freestyle (4:43.58).
Sophomore Brian Woodbury led the way for Curtis, though he lost duels with Rysemus in the IM and backstroke. He swam a leg on the Vikings’ second-place medley relay team (1:42.52), with teammates Nolan Peterson, Riley Hess and Eddie Na.
Olympia High, which finished 12th, was led by freshman Garrett Carson, whose eighth-place time in the 200 IM (2:09.76) might get him to the state meet. Junior Alex Ericson scored for the Bears with an 11th-place finish (53.7) in the 100 free, and sophomore Tim Ward was 14th in the IM.
Eleven of the 12 Bears in the district meet will return next season.
Shelton, 13th in the team standings, was paced by the state-qualifying fifth-place swim of senior Indi Endicott (23.15).
The top six finishers in each event earned automatic state berths, while some will have to wait out the state meet allocation process to see if their district times earn a spot.
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