After the district meet when second-year Sumner High swim coach Dana Powers said, “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” she wasn’t kidding.
In the third race of the night Friday at the Class 2A state swim and dive championships, freshmen Madison Munger sprinted to a state title in the 200-yard individual medley relay.
Soon after, the Spartans’ 200 freestyle relay team won the school’s second title.
By the end of the meet, the Spartans were carrying home a third-place team trophy and left six school records shattered in their wake.
“It was a phenomenal season,” said senior Emma Thompson, who raced the third leg of the championship relay. “There’s not much more you can say. We worked hard all season.”
“Incredible,” Powers said. “There were so many incredible swims; from the 400 free relay that put its heart and soul into getting into the consolation finals to Madison, the first state champion.”
Squalicum defended its title with 226 points and Interlake, which topped Sumner at districts, was second with 216 points. Sumner finished third with 177 points, 17 points ahead of North Thurston.
“It sets the bar higher for next season,” sophomore Ashley Huynh said.
“Next year we should be first in state,” junior Sami Hendricks smiled.
“We were 10th in 3A last year and the times were better this year,” Powers said. “What we look at are the times.”
Between Thursday’s preliminaries and Friday’s finals, the Spartans set six school records and a meet record as well.
It all started with the medley relay.
Sumner set the medley relay meet record Thursday during preliminaries in 1 minute, 54.41 seconds just to have Interlake break it and take the crown during Friday’s finals. Thompson, Huynh, Munger and Hendricks’ blazing 1:54.27 second-place finish broke last year’s school record set by Taylor Ditty, Huyhn, Thompson and Hendricks.
Then it was Munger’s turn to light up the scoreboard at the King County Aquatic Center. Munger became Sumner’s first state swim champ with a 2:09.57 in the 200 IM. She finished nearly four seconds ahead of the second place finisher and nearly the same interval faster than the 1993 SHS record set by Eko Lapp of 2:14.07.
“I gave it my all,” said Munger, who was also an Ironman for the Spartans. She earned a state-qualifying time in all eight individual state events, but is only allowed to race in two individual events and two relays at state. “When it came to the breaststroke I saw the girl next to me and knew I had to step it up.”
Hendricks hit the water flying in the 50 freestyle, finishing second with a 24.43 second time. The junior was a tad quicker in preliminaries, 24.27, breaking her sister Katie’s 2007 school record.
Hendricks also finished third in the 100 freestyle with a 53.97. Her preliminary time of 53.08 gave her the No. 1 seed into the finals and the school record, again topping her sister’s 2006 53.39 mark.
What Munger, Huynh, Thompson and Hendricks came close to doing in the 200 medley relay, they accomplished in the 200 freestyle relay. The foursome won it hands down with a time of 1:41.91, nearly a second faster than their preliminary time and their competition and much faster than last season’s school record of 1:43.07.
It took a team effort to finish third and every Spartan played a role. Sumner put a swimmer in every event except diving.
Thompson finished 10th in the 100 butterfly.
Thompson and Alicia Ditty finished fourth and fifth respectively in the 100 backstroke with Thompson placing in a time of 1:03.35 and Ditty in 1:04.55.
Huyhn finished 10th in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:12.54.
The Spartans’ 400 freestyle relay team of Elizabeth Martin, Lizzie Kressler, Kallan Gustafson and Ditty finished 14th in 4:06.56.
Ditty placed 16th in the 200 IM with a time of 2:27.42.
The hardest part of the night was Munger’s 100 butterfly. Munger said she started to fall off the block and thought she caught herself before the starting horn; she posted a second-place 59.72, but after the race found out she was disqualified.
“She came back,” Powers said, referring to Munger’s lead off in the 200 freestyle relay. “She didn’t dwell on it. She turned it into something positive and focused on the next race. That’s the attitude I want every swimmer to bring to the pool.”
Her preliminary time of 58.90 was a school record, besting the 2004 time of 1:02.07 set by Miranda Cox.
