“This is my fortieth season coaching high school swimming and I don’t think I’ve ever been to a more exciting meet,” coach Kris Daughters said.
On November 14 the girls swim and dive team swam at the 2A State Championships and was victorious for the second year in a row.
“The reason it was so exciting this year was that it wasn’t a sure thing,” Daughters said. “If no places had changed on the final day, we would have lost by 16 points.”
The team finished the meet with 310 points, 27 more than Squalicum who finished second.
Senior Captain Ellie Hohensinner was the team’s only individual State champion in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:07:66.
“Anything can happen in swim, you never really know, so being able to come back and defend my title was really exciting,” Hohensinner said.
The 400 yard freestyle relay team of freshmen Reegan Weber, Hohensinner, freshmen Taylor Clay and senior captain Lauryn Hepp also won the last event of the meet with a time of 3:40.09.
Other top place finishers included Hohensinner placing second in the 200 freestyle, Hepp placing second in the 100 yard breaststroke and third in the 100 yard freestyle, and the 200 yard freestyle relay team of Russell, Clay, Hohensinner and junior Sydney Hartford who took second.
“With very few exceptions everyone swam faster and everyone moved up several places or at least one place from preliminaries to finals,” Daughters said.
Junior Belle Wong moved from ninth place to seventh place in the 1 meter diving, Hartford moved from eighth to seventh in the 50 yard freestyle, Weber moved from sixth to fifth in the 500 freestyle, and Russell moved from sixth to fifth in the 100 yard breaststroke.
“Being able to bring back those trophies to the school and have the last few years of swimmers put Liberty on the map; it’s a different kind of feeling,” Daughters said.