Enumclaw High girls closed out the regular swim season Oct. 18 with a 116-69 nonleague win over Emerald Ridge and kicked off the postseason Friday and Saturday with a second-place finish at the South Puget Sound League 3A meet at Auburn High.
The league meet offered the Hornets one final chance to qualify for the West Central District meet Nov. 5 and 6 at Hazen High in Renton, where they will compete with swimmers from the Olympic, SPSL 3A, Seamount and Narrows leagues. That meet will serve as Enumclaw’s last opportunity to earn a lane at the state meet.
Diver Erica Bonthuis has already earned her spot at the state diving competition. Bonthuis finished third at Saturday’s league meet. Teammate Nikki Wilson was sixth and will dive at districts.
Hornets Bella Davenport and Erin Wessel are close to state-qualifying times. Davenport raced to a first-place, 1-minute, 12.97 100-yard breaststroke time Saturday, just shy of the 1:12.50 needed for state. Wessel sprinted to a personal best 26.70 for third place in the 100 freestyle. The state time is 25.70.
Saturday, EHS started the championship finals with two district times from the 200 medley A relay taking second in 2:05.89 and the B relay scoring seventh in 2:12.11.
Carlie Cairnes and Rachel Holston followed with district times for their fifth- and sixth-place finishes respectively.
Davenport earned a district time in the 200 individual medley with a second-place finish. Bailey Sexton also earned a district berth with a fifth-place finish.
Katie Larrea, Lori Lamm and Carly Hinman led an EHS run in the 100 butterfly. Lamm posted the fastest time among the three in the B final with a 1:14.19 for seventh. Hinman, also in the B final, was eighth in 1:15.46. Larrea finished sixth in the final heat in 1:15.87.
Wessel and Holston came in third and fourth in the 100 freestyle. Wessel posting a time of 59.90 and Holston with a 1:01.51, both district times.
Cairnes scored a district time in the 500 freestyle, hitting the wall at 6:14.22 for fourth.
The Hornets A and B freestyle relays scored district times. The A relay earning second in 1:51.66 and the B taking seventh in 2:01.15.
Sexton posted a personal best in the 100 backstroke with a 1:07.64 for third place and a district berth. Allie Larrea also raced to a district berth, finishing fifth in 1:11.79. Cassie Cook’s 1:13.45 eighth-place finish was also a district-qualifying time.
Davenport wasn’t the only Hornet breaststroker to race to a district time. Hinman followed her in fourth and Allie Larrea was fifth.
The Hornets closed out the afternoon with a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay with a district time of 4:07.86 from the A relay and a seventh-place 4:34.84 district time for the B relay.
Peninsula won the meet with 620 points. EHS followed with 519 and Auburn Mountainview was third with 392.
EHS swimmers have been earning district-qualifying times throughout the season. Sexton, a freshman, was the lone Hornet to post a district-qualifying time in each of the 10 swimming events. At the district meet, swimmers may only compete in two individual events and two relays or one individual event and three relays.
Individually, Mackenzie Bull qualified earlier in the season in the 200 IM and the 500 freestyle and Annie Birklid, Jamie Ritzdorf and Hannah Kinniburgh, who were not previously mentioned, were relay qualifiers.
Enumclaw coach Ann Bettencourt is allowed to enter just one team in each relay event, although several Hornet combinations have qualified.
