Gig Harbor swimming rolls on for fourth straight league title

For the fourth straight year, the Gig Harbor High School girls swim & dive team captured the league title and will enter districts with plenty of swimmers poised to qualify for state.

Scoring 362 points, the Tides finished last Thursday night very successfully. Coming in second place was Peninsula at 231 points, and rounding out the top three was Central Kitsap at 216 points.

“That was exciting because that always one of our big goals of how we measure the success of our program each year,” said coach Mike Kelly. “We try to win the conference title and move forward to this week where we’re going up for the West Central District III 3A championship.”

The Tides won three events at the conference finals: Katie Ward in the 200 free with a time of two minutes and 8.45 seconds; Madeline Erickson in the 100 free at 56.10 seconds; and the team of Teghan Miller, Paige Everling, Megan Hanson and Erickson in the 400 medley relay at 3:57.68.

For Miller, Hanson and the other seniors, it was their last time competing in the conference championships. But both still felt the excitement of competition and gave it all they got.

“It was awesome, I feel like the whole team worked really hard together…It was a really nice meet,” Miller said. “It was kind of laid back and we were all getting really good times.”

Throughout the season, Miller has worked on pushing herself more by expanding her swim events to include more long distance ones.

However, that won’t stop her from competing in her familiar short races when it comes to trying to qualify for state.

“I feel like with the longer distance, you really have to work on reaching further, kicking harder and not going out too fast,” she said. “Before, I dove in and swim, throw my arms like crazy. But now I feel like I’m swimming with a purpose.”

And that encapsulates the Tides’ team moto and why they were able to perform so well at the conference championship.

Coach Kelly emphasized going above and beyond in the pool to his swimmers. When they do their sets, they have a choice of doing it or doing it with purpose.

“I feel like I put in as much hard work as I can and do what’s asked and more,” Hanson said. “You have to keep your head in it, you have to keep thinking, ‘How can I improve in this way?’”

Over the course of the season, Hanson has learned to calm her mind before swim meets and to accept what happens during the course of them.

In her final go of things, she isn’t feeling the stress of the events and not allowing herself to worry. It’s all left in the pool.

“I think the feeling of [being] champions of [the conference] is inspiring because if we can do that, we can do anything,” she said. “I’m just really proud of the team. I expect us to do big things at districts.”

Both Miller and Hanson will be looking to get their state qualifying times at districts.

There were a lot of best times gained at the conference meet as well, particularly with Hannah Walker. Walker, a senior, dropped from a her average 2:19 time in the 200 free to a 2:14.58 and sixth place finish at the conference finals.

She did even better with her 500 free time, dropping nearly 20 seconds from 6:28 average to 6:09.59 and sixth place finish there as well.

“It was a great energy boost for the team, I think they are feeling pretty confident,” coach Kelly said. “I think they’ve pushed each other in practices all season and you could look at the time differences… Now, we are starting to get a little rest and their bodies are starting to regenerate.”

The Tides’ divers also had their fair share of action the day prior to the swim meet. And as usual, Shaye DiMatteo really shined.

DiMatteo came in first with 407 points for the 3A SSC diving championship, while teammates Kiera Hannan and Jenna Burch came in fifth and sixth respectively, giving Gig Harbor that much more of an edge against their league rivals.

The Tides will now shift their focus onto the 3A West Central District finals as the diving portion takes place at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 31 at Henry Foss High School and the swim portion begins at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 at Mount Tahoma High School.

This story was originally published October 30, 2019 at 6:00 AM.