FEDERAL WAY – It might not have been the perfect ending, but Ethan Carlson and Caleb Riggs each walked away with top-eight medals hanging around their necks on Saturday.

Carlson, a senior, finished fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke and Riggs, a sophomore, took seventh at the WIAA Class 3A state swimming and diving championships at the King County Aquatic Center.

Divers Paul Friedman and Jaden Stevens each placed in the top 10, two Seahawks relays earned points, and junior Matt Burkey followed up Friday’s preliminary performance in the 100 free with a solid 11th-place showing on Saturday.

The Seahawks finished 12th as a team, a 13-spot rise from 2011 and a difference of more than 50 points. Yet their mood was dampened. Many of them felt as though their best efforts eluded them.

“I just didn’t have it in the tank,” Carlson said at the end of the meet.

Carlson, who hopes to study nuclear engineering this fall if he’s accepted at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., finished the 100 breast in 1 minute, 1.20 seconds.

“Fourth place is pretty good, but I was hoping for third or better,” he said.

Carlson said he started the season about four seconds slower but had a big drop in time at the South Puget Sound League meet. That carried over into the postseason.

Riggs placed ninth as a freshman last season, and while he earned a spot on the podium on Saturday, his time of 1:01.60 is about a second off his best.

“I know exactly what I did wrong,” he said.

Following the preliminary heat on Friday, Riggs said he glided into the wall instead of finishing with a surge.

“I could have had another stroke,” he said.

Peninsula coach Craig Brown said both swimmers had an outside chance to break the long-standing school record in the event. Byron Dodge swam 59.30 seconds in 1980.

Brown said he met up with Dodge at last year’s swim meet and told him his record might fall. Dodge’s response: “It’s about time.”

Alas, the record is safe – for now.

“I wish Ethan had another year,” Brown said. “But the nice thing about it is, we’ll have Caleb here for another two years.”

In the 1-meter diving competition, Friedman earned an eighth-place medal, and Stevens wound up 10th.

Friedman, a freshman who has a gymnastics background, said it took him a while to settle into the meet.

“After a while, I just got in a groove, and I kept in it and got dives,” he said.

Friedman’s total of 307.40 points was about 30 shy of his qualifying total. He said there are several dives in his repertoire that could sway him one way or the other.

“I surprised myself a lot,” he said. “I was a little nervous, especially on my inwards, but they were all right.”

On the other hand, Stevens was disappointed with his performance. His 286 points were well shy of his qualifying score of 378.10. In fact, if he had duplicated that performance, he would have placed third.

“I didn’t feel like I did any of my dives as well as I could have,” Stevens said. “Everyone has one of those days when things just don’t go right.”

Stevens said he’ll try to forget about this weekend and calm his nerves when he reaches the state meet next February. Two of the top three placers in the event will graduate, and that could open the door for a banner senior year.

“I’m going to really work on my forward approach and learn from my mistakes,” he said.

Burkey participated on Peninsula’s lone state-bound relay team last year and worked hard during the offseason to get into an individual event. His 100-free time of 49.07 was a personal best, even better than his 49.31 during the prelims on Friday. He also finished 17th in the 50 free in 22.68.

Peninsula’s relays performed well. Senior Joel Ratcliffe, sophomore Alex Wenman, Burkey and Riggs combined for a 12th-place finish in the 400-free relay. They finished in 3:24.30, a personal best by almost three seconds.

Burkey, Carlson, Riggs and Wenman opened the meet with the Seahawks’ 200-medley relay, which placed 13th in 1:43.49.

On Friday, Riggs finished 19th in the 200 individual medley (2:03.76), and Wenman was 23rd in the 500 free in 5:16.59, about six seconds slower than his seed time.

Lakeside of Seattle won the team championship and edged defending-champion Mercer Island, 311-300, after it won the final event of the meet, the 400-free relay.

Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 253-853-9245 or by email at brian.mclean@gateline.com. Follow him on Twitter, @gateway_brian.