The Mercer Island Boys Swim and Dive team comfortably defeated Newport in their first meet of the season by a score of 139-49 on Thursday, Dec. 2.
Mercer Island relay teams and individual swimmers dominated, winning ten of eleven swimming events this meet.
The Islanders also went uncontested in the diving category, with a particularly notable performance from freshman Joey Pearse, who placed first in his first meet for the school.
Another strong performance came from junior Matt Williamson, who earned two State cuts with victories in the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle, also swimming on the victorious 200-yard relay team.
“My personal goals for this season are to be an individual state champ in the 200 free and 500 free, setting a school record in the 500,” Williamson said. “I struggled to get State cuts two years ago, so being able to get two in the first meet is pretty sweet.”
Coming off a strong season, expectations are high for this year’s Swim and Dive team.
“[Our] team goal is to go undefeated, along with being KingCo, District, and State champs,” Williamson said. “[We] obviously [have a] very deep team, [it’s] going to be exciting to watch how good we will be.”
The team won the State Championship in 2019, yet the COVID-19 pandemic prevented a postseason in 2020.
“It feels pretty awesome to be swimming well, especially coming off the COVID year,” Williamson said. “Looking forward to this season, both individually and as a team.”
Boys Swim and Dive will hope to follow their strong performance with an away meet against Liberty on Thursday, Dec. 9.
