The Bainbridge High School girls swim team likes to emphasize “team,” and it showed in the “team” events at state.
And it culminated with the “team” victory in winning the state 3A championship at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.
BHS swamped the competition with 379 points. Mercer Island was a distant second with 189 points.
Each winning relay brought the Spartan team 40 points.
BHS won the state title Saturday in the 200-yard medley relay with an All-American time of 1 minute, 43.52 seconds. Freshman Tierney Lenahan, junior Emma Solseng, senior Margaret Hayes and freshman Alexa McDevitt were on the team. They also won the preliminary race last Friday.
The Spartans also won the 200-yard freestyle relay with another All-American time of 1:35.98. Making up that team were Solseng, freshman Piper Majors, sophomore Kathryn Houseman and Hayes. They also won the prelim race.
Making a sweep of the relay races was the all-freshman team of Lenahan, Majors, Sammy Segerson and McDevitt in the 400-yard freestyle in yet another All-American time of 3:30.08. That was about four seconds faster than the victory in the prelims the day before.
Of course in winning the state title, the Spartans also had to have some excellent individual performances.
After finishing second in the prelims Lenahan won the state title in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.15 seconds. That brought the Spartans 20 team points. Majors was 10th in 53.60.
After placing third in the prelims, Lenahan was runner-up in the finals of the 100-yard backstroke with a clocking of 55.73 seconds, which brought her All-American status. Senior Siena Levan was 19th.
In the 200-yard freestyle, after placing third in the prelims, McDevitt was second in the final in 1:50.37. Majors was eighth in 1:56.57. Freshman Sara Kriegh was 18th and sophomore Uma Pal 22nd.
In the 500-yard freestyle, McDevitt moved up from sixth in the prelims to third in the state final, finishing five seconds faster in 4:57.56 for 16 team points. Sammy Segerson was sixth, also five seconds faster, in 5:04.92. Pal also competed for the Spartans.
BHS racked up a number of points in the 200-yard individual medley. Freshmen Sophie Segerson was second (2:05.15) and Sammy Segerson third (2:06.21) with Houseman fourth (2:07.51).
Placing third in the 100-yard breaststroke, moving up a spot from the prelims, was Sophie Segerson, with a clocking of 1:03.96. Houseman was seventh in 1:04.80. Solseng was 10th in 1:06.90, adding seven points to the team total.
The Spartans placed third and fourth in the 50-yard freestyle with Solseng finishing in 23.86 seconds and Hayes in 23.93.
Hayes was fourth in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 56.43 seconds. Levan was 12th in 59.44, and Kriegh also scored a point, placing 16th in 1:01.53.
In the 1-meter diving competition, senior Bryn Tiernan picked up 14 points for the team by finishing fifth with 284.60 points. Elyse Lipton, a sophomore, jumped from 14th in the prelims to eighth in the finals with 279.30 points.
