Curtis’ Sam Abbott swims season-best 100 freestyle, finishes first in 4A state prelims

That must be some good chicken.

Sam Abbott shaved a whopping 1.68 seconds off his seed time to finish in first place in Friday’s 100 freestyle, setting him up with the top time heading into the finals of the Class 4A state boys swimming championships at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Now, about the chicken.

Just like he said he does before every big race nowadays, Abbott said he ate chicken his mom prepared for him.

Sometimes it’s with barbecue sauce, but usually with a lot of milk, he said.

“I think it started when I was in club swimming,” Abbott said. “I had chicken before a race and I did really well. I was like, ‘Let’s try this again.’ I kept doing it and kept doing it and it’s worked.”

And Abbott went from having the sixth-best time entering Friday’s state preliminaries, to the No. 1 time at 47.09 seconds heading into Saturday’s finals, beating second-place Dave Makhervaks of Newport of Bellevue, who finished just behind him at 47.10.

The junior also placed sixth in the 50 freestyle, and qualified as a member of Curtis’s 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams, as the teams placed third in both.

“One thing Sam has really worked on this year is his technique,” Curtis coach Dennis Piccolotto said. “His turn looks better, his start and his finish looks great. He just looks strong. He’s so much stronger than last year.”

Abbott says the relay teams played it safe a bit in both heats and is confident that they can improve on their times tomorrow.

“Relay wise we did good, but I think we can go faster,” Abbott said. “We kind of took it safe on starts. We for sure did not want to DQ. Tomorrow we know we can go a lot faster.”

Gig Harbor’s Ryan Grady finished in the top five in the 200 (fourth) and 500 (fifth) freestyles, dropping nearly three seconds off of both times in the process.

For Grady, it was all about his mental approach to each event.

“Honestly, my coach puts a big emphasis on, ‘If you can go a time, go out and make it,’ ” Grady said. “And as long as you recover well, you’ll be able to recover and come in the back half and do better the next day.

“Really, in the races you’ve just got to think, ‘All right — for the first part, I’m not really going to be feeling that lactic acid. And when that comes, just burn through it, just don’t even think about it, just ignore it.’ ”

For Grady, Saturday represents an opportunity for himself to measure himself against the state’s top swimmers.

“I’m honestly looking forward to how I stack up,” Grady said. “But we will see what happens. I am just excited to swim against these really fast guys.”

He didn’t want to jinx himself, but he said that if he wins Saturday, it would represent his years of hard work paying off and a chance to show gratitude to all of those who have coached him throughout his career.

“I started when I was really young at the Tacoma swim club,” Grady said. “The coaches and the effort they put into me, it would be like a ‘Hey, thank you. You were able to push me to this point and I really appreciate it.’ ”

3A PRELIMINARIES

The Class 3A preliminaries were all about Bellevue.

But there was also a glimmer of Auburn Mountainview.

Bellevue swam the top time in seven of the 12 events, including all three relays, ahead of Saturday’s finals. But Auburn Mountainview’s Owen Lempert shocked the 50 freestyle field, dropping .16 seconds off his seed time, finishing in 21.32 seconds — .15 seconds ahead of second-place Daniel Prang … of defending champion Bellevue.

And in third place was Zach Rossman of Bellevue.

Lempert also qualified for the finals in the 100 breaststroke, sneaking in with an eight-place finish at 1:00.22.

Shelton had three divers finish in the top seven, with Jon Netzel in second with 295.20 points, trailing Glacier Peak’s Connor May (330.85). Sumner’s Rafael Rodriguez was in third at 281.90 points, and Shelton’s Troy Kumpols was sixth (252.70) and Zach Netzel seventh (238.15).

Wilson’s Evan Chard took eighth in the 200 individual medley at 2:02.81. Bellevue’s AJ Rossman was first in 1:56.04.

Wilson’s Chris Harkness just missed reaching the finals in the 500 freestyle, going above his seed time by 3.1 seconds to finish in 10th in 4:53.74. Bellevue’s Nathan Shao took first in 4:44.54.

Bellevue’s Andrew Boden took first in the 200 freestyle.

2A PRELIMINARIES

Steilacoom sent its 200 freestyle relay team and 200 medley relay team into the finals.

The Sentinels took third in the medley relay in 1:43.55, with Kingston finishing first in 1:43.22. They took fifth in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:34.48.

Seth Koivisto swam both relays. He also finished seventh in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.21.

Steven Froehle finished eighth in the 100 freestyle and Vaughn Christensen was eighth in the 100 butterfly.

Washington’s Isaiah Ross was fifth in the 500 freestyle in 4:53.21 to qualify for the finals. Clover Park’s Joseph Claypoole took eighth in the 50 freestyle in 22.92.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Curtis’ Sam Abbott swims season-best 100 freestyle, finishes first in 4A state prelims."