There’s nothing wrong with a little friendly competition.
After Mount Rainier junior Megan Kawaguchi won the 200-yard individual medley at the Class 4A West Central District Championships, Gig Harbor junior Carolyn McCann was looking for payback.
She succeeded. Gig Harbor’s 400 freestyle relay beat Mount Rainier by .22 seconds in the day’s most intense race at the Curtis Aquatic Center.
The Tides completed the relay in 3 minutes, 43.60 seconds, while the Rams were close behind at 3:43.82.
“It was almost like a little bit of revenge since she out-touched me in the 200 IM,” said McCann, who also broke the meet record in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.50. “I was so excited to win it for the team.”
Kawaguchi said that despite losing the race, she was happy with her season-best splits alongside McCann as the relay’s anchor.
“That was really crazy,” she said. “I figured Carolyn had just finished the 100 breaststroke, I’ll be good. But I think we were both tired and it just came down to, really, the last five yards.”
Kawaguchi added that it was “unreal” how happy she was with her season-best performance in the 100 backstroke. She won in 57.96 seconds, and took the 200 IM in 2:07.08.
“It was a really good reassurance that I have the training behind me that I need,” she said, “and in two weeks, I’ll be ready to go even faster.”
Mount Rainier won the team competition, scoring 361 points to beat Gig Harbor (266) and Kentlake (240).
“We had a lot of really, really good swims,” said Mount Rainier coach Chris Veraya. “I can’t think of any swims that were slower times, and we got some state allocations in there. The girls really came out here and gave it everything.”
Stadium senior Felicity Cann won a pair of events, but said that she wasn’t totally satisfied with her times in the 200 freestyle (1:54.04) and 500 freestyle (5:13.17) at her final district meet.
“My 200 was OK, but my 500 wasn’t very good,” she said. “I was feeling the practice I had this morning.”
Other individual winners were Federal Way junior Kenna Ramey in the 50 freestyle (23.98) and 100 butterfly (57.03), Emerald Ridge sophomore Alana Pries in the 100 freestyle (53.65) and Thomas Jefferson senior Shelby Church in the diving competition (448.90 points).
Ramey, the defending state champion in the 50 freestyle, said that the familial atmosphere helped her to a pair of season bests.
“Everyone was supporting me and everyone’s so happy and having a great time here,” she said. “I think that helps a lot – that everyone here loves the support.”
Kentlake won the 200 medley and 200 freestyle relays.
FOOTBALL
Life Christian 34, Bellvue Christian 20: Taylor Roelofs ran for 225 yards on 31 carries and scored five touchdowns to lead Life Christian to a 34-20 victory over Bellevue Christian.
The junior quarterback also completed 14 out of 18 passes for the Eagles.
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