Sumner Girls Swim Places Third at State Competition

Sumner Girls Swim had a strong showing at this weekend’s State Competition at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, finishing third overall. Sumner was first through the 50 free and in second place after the second to last event, 100 breaststroke.  Squalicum won the last race of the night to place second overall and bump Sumner to third. While the team didn’t walk away with the title, school records were set and personal times beat.

Here’s a breakdown of what they did:

Alicia Ditty, Ashley Huynh, Madison Munger and Sami Hendricks helped break Sumner High’s 200 Medley Relay record with a final score of 1:53.74. All the girls had a strong swim and secured their second-place finish in finals.

In the 200 Free, Kallan Gustafson won the consolation finals after entering state in 11th place. She shaved over 5 seconds off her time for a personal season’s best in her final state swim.

Munger swan her season’s best to be seeded second into the event going into finals. Last year she was disqualified in the 100 Fly for a false start; this year, she almost repeated the mistake but was allowed to restart. She ended up becoming a state champion in the 200 Free and breaking a school record set in 1976, with a score of 1:57.03.

In the 200 Individual Medley, Ditty was seeded 10th with her personal best time. Huynh seeded 13th with her season’s best but dropped to 14th, but not without a fight, Coach Dana Powers noted.

In the 100 fly, Munger was seeded 4th with a 1.01.01. She struggled with back issues this season and was not swimming this event close to her best time last year and school record of 58.90. Munger swam a strong race finishing third with a 1.00.90 just missing second place by .74.

In the 100 Free, Hendricks swam her season best and seeded 3rd with a 53.83. She swam her season best time of a 53.77 dropping to 4th place overall in the event. 

In the 500 Free, Gustafson dropped over seven seconds for a personal best time of 5.42.08, seeded 11th going into finals. She looked strong at the beginning of the race; however as the race continued it looked like the swims from earlier were catching up with her. Gustafson raced to a 15th place finish, recording her second best time ever in a 5.45.15. 

The 200 Free relay of Munger, Huynh, Elizabeth Martin and Hendricks seeded 1st in a final time of 1.43.78. This team, with the addition of Martin, was the defending champions of the event. Huynh and Martin had great splits of 26.63 and 26.62 respectively to give Hendricks the lead she would walk away with. Hendricks swam her best 50 recording a 23.78 and defending their title in the event.

With three races to go, Ditty was up next in the 100 Backstroke. Ditty swam her personal best of 1.02.79 to be seeded 3rd going into finals. Ditty swam a good race in the finals; however she looked like she ran out of gas at the end placing 5th overall in a 1.03.69. She took it in stride and went to warm down as she knew she didn't have long before she was up to race in the 400 free relay. 

Huynh seeded 6th in the 100 Breaststroke with her best time of 1.10.50. She raced hard and swam her best time of 1.10.35, placing 7th overall. 

The last event was the 400 Free relay, consisting of Gustafson, Martin, Alejandra Castro and Ditty. In prelims they swam their personal best times to be seeded 15th in a 4.03.51, dropping over 7 seconds from their best relay time at leagues. The relay placed 15th overall. The long day took it’s toll and three of the four swimmers swam slightly slower, except for Castro, who swam a second faster in finals on the second leg of the race.  Their final time was 4.05.12.