A tie doesn’t happen often in swimming, but Thursday afternoon was one of those rare moments when Sumner High’s Connor Powers-Hubbard and Peninsula’s clocked identical 1-minute, 05.88-second finishes in the 100-yard breaststroke, a state-qualifying time.
The tie pulled Peninsula within striking distance of a come-from-behind, nonleague victory over the Spartans at 89-85.
Peninsula then captured the 400 freestyle relay, a victory worth eight points. But the Spartans sprinted in second, worth four points, to edge the Class 3A Seahawks for a 95-93 victory.
The day was filled with highlights as Powers-Hubbard also bettered his 200 individual medley state-qualifying time with a 2:11.68 finish. Trent Powers improved his state 50 freestyle time with a 22.70 mark.
Saturday at Lakes High, Evan Quashnik qualified for February’s state meet after scoring 317.90 points in the 11-dive competition. Thursday, Quashnik set a personal-best for six-dive competition with 190.80 points.
Also in Thursday’s contest, Zane Gustafson finished second in the 200 freestyle, bettering his district-qualifying time. In the 200 IM Sam Parks dropped more than 8 seconds to make his qualifying cut and also dropped his 50 freestyle time to qualify for the district meet. Teammate Pietro Postal dropped almost a second to make the district meet with a 26.15.
In the 100 butterfly, Parks dropped more than 3 seconds for a district-qualifying time. Gustafson dropped time in the 100 freestyle to better his qualifying time with a 53.69 and Postal dropped 3.57 seconds to record a district-qualifying time of 57.59.
Sam Rigsby dropped nearly 16 seconds to record a better 500 freestyle district time, while the 200 freestyle relay of Gustafson, Postal, Powers-Hubbard and Powers dropped their district time and fell within 1.5 seconds from a state time.
Severn Anderson also cut time off his 100 breaststroke for districts. The 400 freestyle relay team of Rigsby, Neil Bateman, Postal and Parks also qualified for the district meet.
