“Port Angeles won the two opening skirmishes in Friday’s swim meet, but the Spartans took seven of the remaining 10 events and used their superior depth to win the battle as they defeated the visiting Roughriders 104-77 to virtually sew up the Olympic League dual meet championship. The Roughriders captured the opening 200 medley relay as their varsity mistakenly swam at the same time as the Spartan JVs. So the Spartan varsity had a lot of empty lanes when they swam and Port Angeles won on the basis of comparative times. Then a Roughrider took the 200 free by a touch.But Jake Christensen came back to win the 200 IM with Nick Rodda moving up from fourth to second on the freestyle leg to put the Spartans in front for good. Erik Steinecker won the tightly contested 50 free in 24.00 with Andrew Sperling third in 24.20. Four Roughriders confronted the lone Bainbridge diver, freshman Zander Bermer. But he barely raised a splash as he calmly scored 6’s and 6.5s on his first dive to take the lead and wound up with a season-best 176.1 to win by more than 25 points. Jeff Christensen followed with a 57.63 to easily win the 100 fly, Jake Christensen paced a 2-3-5 Spartan finish in the 100 free with a 54.53, and the 200 free relay of Jeff Christensen, Steinecker, Rodda and Sperling took first in 1:38.89. The teams traded 1-2-3 sweeps as Steinecker’s 1:03.40 paced the backstrokers before PA returned the favor in the 100 breast. The afternoon concluded with the Spartan 400 free relay team of Nate Rooks, the two Christensens, and Jacob Whitmore winning in 3:39.64. Whitmore, the team’s top distance swimmer, showed the versatility that coach Lynn Wells emphasizes as he made up more than a body length on his anchor leg to demonstrate that he’s also capable of swimming fast.Afterward, co-captain Jeff Christensen explained that we’re a little tired and sick. The two-week break should help.At that point, sophomore Matt Colley bounced up to Christensen, announced to anyone in the vicinity that This guy’s awesome, and headed happily for the locker room. Across the pool, coach Lynn Wells was pleased with the win, especially since the team was down to eight swimmers and two divers.Assistant coach Greg Colby added, They haven’t worked this hard in the past. In the mornings, they have a hard solid hour with the weights, then another quality hour in the pool. So everybody’s a little broken down right now and swimming tired, but it can be a great experience to race when you’re this tired.I hope that we get some good workouts during the break, he added. They seem more committed to their training. I’ve never seen these guys work this hard.Yesterday’s meet at North Kitsap was the team’s final competition before the holiday break. They return to action on Thursday, January 4, hosting the combined Central Kitsap/Klahowya team. “