The girls swimming teams of Capital and Timberline squared off in a double dual against Gig Harbor at Timberline High School Tuesday afternoon.
While Gig Harbor dominated Capital 146-32 and Timberline 136-33 and won every event, both the Blazers and the Cougars found success with several impressive times.
Timberline freshman Nevaeh Lewis qualified for the district meet with a second-place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:22.75 and took third in the 100-yard butterfly by a five-second improvement, cutting her time to 1:23.33.
Timberline’s and Capital’s 200-yard medley relay teams finished third and fourth, respectively. Timberline’s group of Lewis, Lauren Bouwman, Talia Larsen and Carolynn Olson swam a time of 2:30.67, while Capital’s quartet of Masha Olson, Brooke Machut, Tessa Nielsen and Amanda Tang improved their best time to 2:32.43.
Timberline junior Brenna Ganey finished third in the 200-yard freestyle with a new best time of 2:26.94. Timberline junior Layla Nau continued her strong start to the season with a second-place placement in the 50-yard freestyle at 27.41 seconds, her best race yet, and a third-place swim in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:01.82.
For Capital, Tang took second place in the 1-meter diving, scoring 94.35, while sophomore Addy Sanchez ranked third at 51.80. Nielsen was the runner-up in the 100-yard butterfly with a four-second improvement of 1:19.44.
Timberline’s 200-yard freestyle relay team — made up of Nau, Ganey, Larsen and Bouwman — finished in second place at 2:01.50, while Capital — made up of Tang, Annin Lima, Masha Olson and Nielsen — came in fourth at 2:15.92. Masha Olson cut her 100-yard backstroke time down by a second at 1:31.38, good for fourth.
Timberline head coach Caleb Hegel-Linggi praised his team for competing against a historically dominant swim team in Gig Harbor.
“We went into this meet knowing that Gig Harbor has a long-standing history of being one of the most dominant swim schools in our district,” he said. “However, the best thing about swim is the individual aspect of competition, knowing that no matter what the score comes out to be, it will not stop anyone from pushing themselves with everything they have each race. Many of the girls made that statement come true as we continued to see time drops and new personal bests from new and veteran swimmers alike.”
Timberline’s next meet is scheduled for Thursday at Silas, while Capital will return to Timberline’s pool next Tuesday, Sept. 22 to face Silas.
