Keough, Curtis take second at 4A boys state swim meet

If it turns out the 50-yard freestyle winds up as the only state championship final Patrick Keough loses during his high school swimming career, he can take consolation in being the answer to a fun trivia question:

Who was second the day Glacier Peak’s Matthew King broke maybe the most revered state record in the WIAA swimming book?

Keough, the defending champion in the 200 free, opted for the 50 in his sophomore season. He swam 20.72 seconds.

And he finished, remarkably, almost a second behind King’s 19.81 in an event regularly decided by hundredths of seconds. King’s mark was one of two the Grizzlies senior set at King County Aquatic Center.

Both erased records held by Newport’s Ugur Taner, who went on to swim in the Olympics, since 1992. Taner’s 50 free standard had stood at 20.02 seconds, while his 100 free mark was at 43.73.

King, who scored a record 330 points in the race for Swimmer of the Meet, went 43.24 to set the 100 record.

“Matt King is crazy,” Keough said. “He’s really fun to watch swim. The 50 is more of an off event for me. But it’s a fun event.”

Keough was the only Viking to qualify for state in the 50 free this season. He and coach Dennis Piccolotto discussed the needs of the team and decided Keough would swim the short race rather than defend his 200 title (where Curtis had Joe Melin and Keegan March also swimming).

“It was an easy sell,” Piccolotto said. “Patrick is always like, whatever you need. That’s the kind of kid he is.”

The strategy worked overall.

Keough added 17 points in an event where the Vikings would have scored none. Melin and March finished sixth and seventh in the championship final of the 200, and Curtis went on to score a second straight second-place state finish in 4A. Skyline won the title, 260-197 over the runner-up Vikings.

“It’s just balancing the individual and the team,” said Keough, who did win another title of his own later in the meet.

Keough defended the 100 butterfly championship he won as a freshman, giving him three of four possible individual titles after the first two years of his career.

“Next year, the goal will be a state record,” Keough said after he swam an automatic All-America time of 48.37 seconds in the fly. Richland’s Cody Roberts set the state and meet butterfly record at 47.81 in 2009.

Keough’s swim was just off a state mark, but many others were not. In all, five meet records (three also were overall state records) fell on Saturday.

In addition to the two by King, Hazen senior Ethan Dang lowered the meet record in the 100 breaststroke he set during prelims on Friday, resetting the state record in the process with his 52.76.

Wenatchee’s 200 medley relay team (1:33.55) and Kamiak’s 200 free relay (1:25.53) also were record-setters. The Curtis 400 free relay came within a hairs-breadth of the oldest record in the books – Wilson’s 3:07.06 from 1983 with its 3:07.87 to conclude the meet.

The 4A meet, the first of the three swam on Saturday, made for a tough act to follow. But the 2A and 3A meets managed several highlights of their own.

Mercer Island (3A) and Sammamish (2A) won team titles. In 3A, Gig Harbor’s Billy Oates was a double winner, taking the 50 free in 20.53 and the 100 back in 49.10. The Tides sophomore was named the swimmer of the meet.

Stadium’s Gabriel Nickels also won a title, going 4:27.06 to take the 500 free.

Three more records fell in the 2A meet, including two by Liberty of Renton’s Warren Briggs, who was named swimmer of the meet after his wins in the 200 and 500 freestyles (1:38.18 and 4:27.66).

Liberty was third in 2A, while Steilacoom managed a 10th place finish with 78 points. Sentinels divers Connor McPhail (261.3 points) and Aaron Burlingame (229.65) were fifth and eighth in the event.

This story was originally published February 23, 2020 at 12:07 AM.