Earning 27 consecutive victories is tough in any sport or league. The Mercerwood Shore Club reached that mark with a 439.5-249.5 victory over Newport Hills, despite being shorthanded on Thursday. The mark continues a Midlakes swim league record.
“[Newport Hills is] much tougher than in the past,” said Mercerwood Shore Club coach Alice Godfred. “They have more swimmers and a lot of depth.”
The Shore Club had nearly 70 less swimmers than Newport during the meet but relied on quality instead of quantity.
Two Mercerwood swimmers finished with three individual first-place victories as Dan Simons won it for the 13- and 14-year-old boys, and Rachel Godfred did it at the 15-and-over girls division. Mark Larkin, AJ Rossman, Jennifer Pak, Mallory Phillips, Kirk Robinson, Tanner Martinez and Taylor Seidel all finished first in individual swims twice during the meet.
“We are proud of our win streak and how we’ve been able to hold it together,” said Godfred.
The week of the Fourth of July is bad for every club in the Midlakes league as families travel over the holiday. But for the week, Mercer Island teams went 2-1 during A meets. The Mercer Island Beach Club earned its first victory of the season by defeating Samena of Bellevue 482-218. The Beach Club finished with 18 first-place victories in relays out of 20 events during the meet.
The Mercer Island Country Club is still looking for its first victory, as it had the unenviable task of traveling to Newport to take on Edgebrook. The 459-243 loss dropped the Country Club to 0-3 on the year.
The Country Club’s Parker Simpson won two individual events, while teammates Catherine Hoff, Andy Wingerson, Grady Burdick and Lauren Poli all won two.
Despite the losses, the Country Club’s record is misleading as it has also lost to defending league champion Mercerwood and Newport Hills, which has improved and added many swimmers during the off season.
“Both Island clubs have improved so much this year,” said Godfred. “I think they will knock some of the competition off.”
All of the teams also had the challenge of not being able to practice much during the week, due to rain and thunderstorms.
“This is good weather,” said Shore Club swimmer, Kyle Schaeffer, during the meet. “It’s not too hot. The first two meets were hot.”
As for the Shore Club, the victory gives the team momentum as it heads into one of the biggest meets of the season with Edgebrook. In recent years, the meet has determined the regular season champion, all going to Mercerwood by narrow margins.
“We need our borderline A and B swimmers to see what they can do to help the team,” said Godfred. “We will have to pull ourselves up by our boot straps.”
Godfred admits that the winning streak is something that the younger kids care more about, but the Edgebrook meet may end up being different with motivation from the rivalry that has grown over the past few years.
“The kids that are 13 and 14 years old and on down care about the win streak, but I think next week will be different,” said Godfred.
But many of the older kids care about the streak for the younger kids.
“I remember how big of a deal it was to win these meets when I was younger,” said Alex Tao of the Shore Club.
The Mercerwood Shore Club will host Edgebrook tomorrow at 4:30 p.m.
