North Thurston junior swimmer Chelsea Watson punched her ticket to the Puget Sound League meet in the 200-yard freestyle with by far her best time yet of 2 minutes, 32.19 seconds during a home meet against Lakes on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Watson beat her previous time of 2:54.91 by 22 seconds. She also won the 100-yard breaststroke at 1:45.45 to help the Rams defeat the Lancers 119-63 to improve to 4-4.
The Rams took the top three spots in the 200-yard freestyle, with junior Aspen Bermensolo earning second at 2:42.15 and senior Kailey Hudman finishing in third with a personal record of 3:09.10.
Senior Michelle Ewig won the 200-yard individual medley at 2:46.75, and both Ruth Cheney (third at 3:22.16) and Halana Tanabe (fourth at 3:33.87) earned PRs. Ewig also clinched the 100-yard butterfly title in dominant fashion at 1:19.71, 25 seconds faster than the runner-up. Tanabe finished third with a nine-second PR of 1:47.69.
Junior Luna Kresha’s PR of 1:20.11 was enough to win the 100-yard backstroke.
Junior Kai Cardwell triumphed in the 50-yard freestyle at 32.16 seconds, and she took first in the 100-yard freestyle at 1:11.22, just a second away from qualifying for leagues. Sophomore Lilyana Rivera-Sanders earned a PR of 1:19.29 to finish in third.
North Thurston won all three relay events; the 200-yard freestyle relay team finished in 2:12.78, the 200-yard medley relay squad posted a time of 2:25.29, and the 400-yard freestyle team swam 5:01.84.
Senior June Booth won the 500-yard freestyle at 7:26.62, while senior Kamarah Thayer set a new PR of 9:00.30 to place second.
“I’m impressed with how well the girls swam today. Even after a hard training block, we still had several girls post PRs and take a number of top places at the meet,” North Thurston head coach Christy Bermensolo said.
North Thurston will visit River Ridge on Thursday, Oct. 15.
