The MIHS Girls Swim and Dive team won state on Nov. 12 with a historic score of 385 total points, the highest score ever recorded in the competition. Their first state win in eight years, they beat the runner-up team, Bellevue, 385-242.
The team won a total of nine out of the 12 events, and secured second place in two more.
Prior to the swimming events, MIHS divers saw success in the one meter diving. Brooke Andrews earned first place, and fellow seniors Charlotte Friedman and Anna Bertlin placed seventh and twelfth, respectively.
The meet finals got off to an exhilarating start in the 200 Medley relay, with the Islanders losing to Bainbridge by 0.04 seconds. However, they were able to recover and won the next three events: the 200 freestyle, the 50 freestyle and the 200 individual medley. Piper Enge set a new state record in this event with a time of 1:58:13 in the Preliminaries.
“I’m super happy that I was part of the team, I think we did really well,” freshman Gracyn Kehoe said.
Kehoe won the 100 freestyle, and sophomore Alexa McDevitt won the 500 freestyle. In the middle of the meet, Enge was granted the Swimmer of the Meet award.
New school records were set in six events: the 50 freestyle by Clare Watson, later beat by Enge, 500 freestyle by McDevitt, 200 IM by Enge, the 200 medley relay, the 200 freestyle relay and the 400 freestyle relay, which was also a state record.
“They were fast. And there’s a lot of them that are fast. It’s not one or two kids. It’s a lot of kids that can do anything. This is just a supergroup,” Coach Chautelle Johnson told The Seattle Times. Johnson was also recognized as the coach of the year.
“I’m really proud of my team,” senior captain Ellie Oordt said. “This season was amazing, it was my favorite season of all four years. We were like a little family.”
