The Timberline girls swim and dive team was the highest-placing Thurston County squad in the Puget Sound League Championships this weekend, finishing in fourth place with 82 points.
Timberline’s 400-yard freestyle relay team was the lone top-three finisher across all events among area schools, as Layla Nau, Brenna Ganey, Nevaeh Lewis and Talia Larsen teamed up to place third at 4 minutes, 27.63 seconds.
Nau earned a fifth-place time of 28.15 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. North Thurston senior Michelle Ewig was right behind her in sixth place at 28.22 seconds, and River Ridge’s Emily Wlodkowski earned a personal record of 30.73 seconds to take 12th.
North Thurston placed sixth in the team standings with 79 points. Its 200-yard medley relay notched fourth at 2:18.08, and Timberline took seventh at 2:24.07. The Rams also finished in fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 2:03.60, with Timberline close behind in fifth at 2:05.82.
Ewig also secured a top-five finish in the 100-yard freestyle, placing fifth at 1:01.43. Lewis ranked seventh in the 100 free with a PR of 1:01.69, and she took ninth in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:42.63.
Capital, which tied with River Ridge for ninth place with 37 team points, had the area’s only 1-meter diver in senior Amanda Tang, who took home sixth place with a final score of 147.15, her best yet. Capital junior Tessa Nielsen finished in ninth place in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:21.06 to lead all area competitors.
North Thurston junior Aspen Bermensolo secured a huge PR in the 500-yard freestyle at 7:08.95 in a 10th-place swim that cut her time down over six seconds. Rams junior Luna Kresha was the area’s top swimmer in the 100-yard backstroke in 12th place with a PR of 1:19.18.
“I’m really proud of how we raced this weekend. We saw time drops from a number of girls, from Aspen Bermensolo cutting more than six seconds in the 500 to Sue Berei dropping three seconds in the 50 free,” North Thurston head coach Christy Bermensolo said. “For a lot of the team, this is their last meet of the season, so it was great to see all the PRs. We’re hopeful some of those swims will be enough to earn wild card spots at districts.”
Ganey posted an 11th-place time in the 200-yard freestyle at 2:28.58 for the Blazers. Timberline senior Grace Stucki earned 13th place and a PR in the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:31.85, and River Ridge’s Madison Smith also landed a PR and a 14th-place time of 1:33.34.
The District 3 3A meet will be held at Mount Tahoma on Friday, Oct. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 31.
