MIHS girls swim and dive captures KingCo title

The Mercer Island girls swim and dive team earned the KingCo title for the 10th year in a row, finishing the regular season undefeated and winning the KingCo league championship last Saturday.

Head coach Chauntelle Johnson said the team had a great weekend, and 22 girls will go to the district meet this weekend.

In the first event of the KingCo meet at Mary Wayte Pool, the Islanders won their heat in the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute and 50.77 seconds, beating their qualifying time of 1:52.06.

In the 200-yard freestyle event Kira Godfred finished fifth overall with a time of 2:03.34. Madeline Larkin finished in 14th place in the 200-yard individual medley.

Jennifer Pak contributed 27 points to the team after finishing second overall in the 50-yard freestyle race. Her teammates Stephanie Hammon and Grace Wold tied for seventh place with finals times of 26.29.

In the 1-meter diving competition Mercer Island’s Vanessa Gaffney took ninth and Maggie Lindsey was 12th.

Wold also took second in the 100-yard butterfly event with a time 59.08.

Godfred finished 10th in the 100-yard freestyle event with a race time of 57.47.

Madeleine Chandless was fifth overall in the 500-yard freestyle, while Larkin finished less than a second behind for sixth place.

Mercer Island took second in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:41.87.

In the 100-yard breaststroke Pak finished fourth overall and the relay team in the 400-yard freestyle relay was sixth overall.

The team now heads to the district meet, also held at Mary Wayte Pool this weekend. The swim meet prelims take place Friday beginning at 4:30 p.m. and the finals will be held starting at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.

“I’m excited for the chance to swim against some of the other teams before we see them at state,” said Johnson.