Boys swimming primer: Curtis, Gig Harbor hope to contend with Newport of Bellevue for 4A title

Friday-Saturday, King County Aquatic Center, Federal Way

Schedule

Friday: 2A preliminaries begin at 9:45 a.m.; 3A preliminaries at 2 p.m. and 4A preliminaries at 6:30 p.m.

Saturday: 2A finals begin at 9:30 a.m.; 3A finals at 2:15 p.m. and 4A finals at 7 p.m.

2015 team champions

4A: Newport of Bellevue

3A: Bellevue

2A: Anacortes

Defending individual champions

4A: Drew Makhervaks, Newport (100 backstroke)

3A: Casey Benson, O’Dea (diving); Dean Nguyen, Franklin (100 breaststroke)

2A: James Buchanan, Lindbergh (100 backstroke)

The skinny

4A: The city of Bellevue took over boys swimming last year behind titles from Newport (4A) and Bellevue (3A). That isn’t expected to change this year. Maybe the fastest best swimmer this weekend will be Jackson sophomore Jonathan Cook, who enters with the best times in the state, for all classifications, in the 100 breaststroke (57.91) and the 200 IM (1:53.64). Curtis’ Sam Abbott, Garrett Friedman, twin brother Troy Friedman and Brandon Leu have the No. 2 seed in the 400 freestyle relay behind Issaquah. Gig Harbor’s Ryan Grady is the No. 5 seed in the 500 freestyle and No. 9 seed in the 200 freestyle.

3A: These Bainbridge freshmen are no joke. Kevin Houseman (100 breaststroke) and Garrett Waite (100 backstroke) enter as the top seeds in their respective events. Sumner’s Rafael Rodriguez didn’t take his first dive until November 2014, but enters as the No. 4 seed at 430.75 points — almost 100 points better than his first dive, Sumner coach Maari Bennett said. But even that is almost 100 points behind Glacier Peak’s Connor May, the top seed at 522.85 points. Wilson’s Chris Harkness might be the South Sound’s best shot at a state title, entering at 4:50.64 in the 500 freestyle.

2A: There’s no reason to believe Anacortes shouldn’t repeat as team champion, which would give the Northwest Conference six titles in eight years. Anacortes has the top seeds in two relay events and three individual events, with Nathan Mathes the top seed in both the 100 freestyle and 50 freestyle. Steilacoom is hoping to push its streak of top-five team finishes to four consecutive years, but Lindbergh appear a likely candidate to push Anacortes behind Buchanan, who is the top seed in both the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley. Shorecrest’s Grant Heisey has the top 200 free time (1:46.73) in the state, at any classification.

Tickets: Daily passes are $10 for adults, $7 for students and senior citizens. Tournament passes are $16/$10.

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 4:23 PM with the headline "Boys swimming primer: Curtis, Gig Harbor hope to contend with Newport of Bellevue for 4A title."