Olaf Olson breaks a dive record, but the Spartans lose by one to Metro rival O’Dea.

After the Spartans’ meet against Lakeside in ealry December, Bainbridge swim coach Kaycee Taylor was excited when he talked about how the team would do this year.

Sure, their meet of a week ago against O’Dea had been canceled due to snow, but they would make it up. Besides, it was probably a one-time thing that it snowed, given the meteorological history of Western Washington.

Six weeks and two cancellations later from reasons due to wind to snow to even ice, the season has been turned on its (swimmer’s) ear.

And Taylor and the rest of the team has tried to deal with it the best that they can.

“It’s been a crazy season with all the cancellations,” he said. “We started the season with such amazing times and we’ve kind of dipped down, but we’re starting to work our way back up.”

The Spartans defeated Issaquah 102-81 on Dec. 12, but didn’t have another meet until early January, when they lost to Seattle Prep 90-80.

They swam at the Kentridge Invite on Jan. 13, where they placed sixth, but got two in a row when they swam against Eastside Catholic last Friday, then lost to O’Dea on Saturday by the score of 94-93.

Taylor was concerned about how the team had lost some of its steam after the strong start due to the many days off, but was pleased with how they did against the Fighting Irish.

“This is a good meet for us,” he said. “We only lost by one point. Considering they finish in the top ten at state, I think that looks good for us.”

Olaf Olson looked great in his final home meet of the season, as he broke the schools’ diving record with 337 points.

“I was glad I got my record on the board,” he said. “I’m pretty excited I could get that out of the way.”

The senior wanted to break the record at the Mary Wayte Pool during the Kingco/Metro crossover meet, but it was cancelled.

“I didn’t have a chance there, but to keep getting records there (at home,) that’s what I’m looking for,” Olson said, who’s shooting for a goal of 500 points at State.

When he wasn’t swimming a district qualifying time of 1:07.83 in the 100 breaststroke, Cheyne Clark scored 270.25 points to finish second.

Austin Hallett continued his string of strong performances, as he scored state qualifying times of 22.81 in the 50 freestyle and 54.36 in the 100 backstroke.

He was also on the 200 medley relay team with Clark, David Ortyn and Kevin Brooks that registered a state qualifying time of 1:45.41.

Hallett is as frustrated as the rest of his teammates about the weather, but he gave credit to the coaching staff for their ability to keep everyone on task.

“I (have to) hand it to Kaycee and Greg,” he said. “They’ve both made our practices worthwhile.

“It’s like practice is a meet, (so) we get so much more done than normal. They know that we have to get it done when we don’t have meets.”

Taylor said the key has been designing specific workouts for certain swimmers such as the freestylers, the distance swimmers and so on.

Those workouts have paid off, as PJ Trimble scored district qualifying times of 2:03.13 in the 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, while Lane Baldwin had a district qualifying time of 2:21.90 in the 200 individual medley and Jeff Yalung had a district time in the 100 breaststroke.

Brooks and Cooper Ashley had district qualifying times in the 50 free, while Lane and his twin brother Lee both scored district qualifying times in the 100 fly.

Ball and Andrew Stewart had district qualifying times in the 100 free while Ortyn and Stewart placed first and second in the 500 free, both registering district times as well.

“(The workouts) are to keep them focused on ‘this is my stroke’ for a meet,” he said. “The captains have been really good with the freshman talking about making sure you’re dividing their time well.”