Coming into the West Central District 4A boys swimming meet Saturday at the Rogers High, Kentwood knew it had an outside shot at qualifying its 200-yard medley relay team for the state meet.
What the Conks didn’t expect is that the team would shave a whopping 12 seconds off their league time, posting a third-place state qualifying time of 1:45.72 and punching their ticket to the state meet, slated for Feb. 19-21 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
“We thought we had a chance to qualify, but not do as well as we did,” coach Sharon Wright said. “I’m reflecting on this and at the beginning of the season I never anticipated they would do this. It wasn’t even on my radar.”
This past week, after their 1:56.57 performance at the league meet, Wright said she sat the team down – Logan Ryan, Andrew Douglass, Alex Li and Matt Zietzke – to figure out how to better their time
“I just sat the boys down and told them to figure what their splits would be and they just took ownership of it,” she said.
Indeed.
“We had a good amount of time to practice,” said Ryan, who also qualified for the state meet individually in the 100 breast. “Our coach kept me and Andrew working out pretty hard for most of the week, but gave us the last couple of days off. So we had a lot of rest, which is important. It keeps the muscles in shape and allows them time to heal.”
In addition to the last week’s workouts, Wright pointed out that Douglass’ decision to forego competing in the backstroke, an event she says he would have likely qualified for state in, as being instrumental in the team’s success at district.
“Had he picked the back he probably would have qualified for state in that,” she said. “But we might not have done as well in the relay. In the big scheme of things, it was better for the team, but I wish he would have been able to qualify in the 200 IM.”
Now the team will spend the next couple of weeks preparing for the state meet.
“We’re going to train hard this week and then use the next week to slowly work down,” Ryan said. “I think it will help me drop some time (in the 100 breast).”
Ryan added that he hoped the relay team would post a top-16 time and qualify to compete on day two of the state meet.
Individually, Ryan said he hoped to better 1:02 in the 100 breast and hopefully break the Kentwood school record.
• ALSO: The Kentridge boys swim team finished 10th overall in the team competition with 61 points. Diver Luke Carpenter qualified for the state meet with a 319.35 point performance.
