FEDERAL WAY — With four school records falling, Aberdeen advanced swimmers to the championship finals in six events on the opening day of the State 2A Girls Swimming &Diving Championships on Friday at the King County Aquatics Center.
Preliminaries in all swimming events were staged Friday, with the top eight in each event advancing to the championship finals and the next eight qualifying for the consolation finals this afternoon. Action begins at 2:15 p.m.
Aberdeen freshman Annika Eisele had a hand in all four school records. She lowered her own school marks in the 200-yard individual medley (2:14.27) and 100 butterfly (59.76), qualifying fifth in each event.
The Bobcat 200 medley relay team of Kayleia Sias, Mari Rabung, Eisele and Karli Heikkila qualified third with a school-record mark of 1:53.30. The 200 free relay team of Eisele, Katie Lewis, Heikkila and Emily May also set a school record with a time of 1:43.97 in qualifying fifth.
Eisele, incidentally, met 50 freestyle state-qualifying standards with her leadoff leg in the latter event. While she is not competing at state in that event, she did achieve a rare distinction.
“By making that state time, that gave her state-qualifying times in every single event,” AHS coach Jan Simons reported.
Other Bobcats to make the championship finals included Sias, fifth in the 100 backstroke, and Heikkila, eighth in the 100 free.
The showing represented a tremendous upgrade over last year’s state performance, in which the Bobcats did not have a single qualifier for the championship finals.
“We started off with a rip-roaring bang on the medley relay,” Simons said. “We’re really, really pleased. The kids have done everything and then some of what I’ve asked them to do.”
Aberdeen qualifiers:
200 medley relay — 5. Aberdeen (Sias, Rabung, Eisele, Heikkila). 200 IM — 5. Annika Eisele. 50 free — 11. Karli Heikkila. 100 fly — 5. Eisele. 13. Kayleia Sias. 100 free — 8. Heikkila. 200 free relay — 5. Aberdeen (Eisele, Lewis, Heikkila, E. May). 100 back — 5. Sias. 100 breast — 9. Mari Rabung. 400 free relay — 11. Aberdeen (Sias, Lewis, Waltee, E. May).
