By Brenda Sexton | The Courier-Herald

With two meets behind it, the Sumner High boys swim and dive team continues to improve its technique and times.

The Spartans started the season with a 104-65 South Puget Sound League 3A loss to Auburn Mountainview Dec. 3. The contest was highlighted by Zane Gustafson’s 2-minute, 26.55-second victory in the 200-yard individual medley and the a win in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:51.58.

Teammate Shayd Breckenridge finished seventh in the 200 IM in 3:06.57.

Spartan Evan Quaschnik won the diving with a personal-best, six-dive score of 170.55.

Connor Hubbard won the 100 breaststroke with a 1:11.72 and placed second in the 100 freestyle in 55. The 200 medley relay of Gustafson, Hubbard, Quaschnik and Breckenridge placed second with a time of 2.02.46. The same foursome also placed second in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1.50.55.

The Spartans dropped their second meet 112-71 Thursday to Class 4A Auburn Riverside.

Coach Dana Powers said the team is looking stronger in the water and posted several district-qualifying times, starting with the 200 medley relay of Gustafson, Conner Powers-Hubbard, Brandon Richison and Trent Powers, which raced to a time of 1:52.77.

The four also made the district cut in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1.40.04.

Individually, Gustafson posted a district time with a 2:23.18 finish in the 200 IM and was just shy of making a district time in the 100 breaststroke with a 1.11.84 finish.

Powers made districts in the 50 freestyle in a 24.40 and in the 100 butterfly with a 1.01.63. Powers-Hubbard qualified for February’s district meet in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2.00.08 and the 100 breaststroke in 1.10.25.

Not a district time, but a notable swim was Richison’s 100 butterfly of 1:05.00, which just missed the district mark.

The gutsiest performance, coach Powers said, came from first-year swimmer Pietro Pittella. Pittella raced the 100 butterfly and 500 freestyle, contests that run nearly back-to-back.

Pittella swam the 100 butterfly without disqualifying in a time of 2.04.16 and came out of the water in pain, coach Powers said.

In less than five minutes, he got back up on the blocks and swam the 500 freestyle in a time of 10.24.35.

“At each end of the pool he did a flip turn and pushed himself to the limit, he did not quit,” Powers said. “Pittella’s times will only improve this season because he pushes himself and has a tough mindset.”

Tanner Harrison and Michael Ulmer battled in the 200 freestyle with Harrison edging out Ulmer, 3.19.25 to 3.25.35. In the 50 freestyle, Sam Parks broke the 30-second barrier in a time of 29.58 with Cory Mullender was close behind at 30.69.

In diving, Quaschnik scored 152.40, Mullender 128.85 and first-year diver Curtis Downing scored 34.65.

Other times were, in the 100 freestyle, Mullender, 1.08.87; Parks, 1.09.13; Anderson, 1.18.44; Josh Goodsell, 1.19.25, and Harrison, 1.29.20. In the 500 freestyle it was Tristan Hanon, 7.10.51, and Breckenridge, who bettered his previous time by more than 13 seconds with a 7.20.24. In the 100 backstroke, Quaschnik, 1.29.14, Hanon, 1.37.32, and Sam Rigsby, 1.41.16, and in the 100 breast, Ulmer bettered his time by more than 9 seconds with a 1.53.10.

The Spartans were scheduled to host Clover Park Tuesday and North Thurston Thursday.