FEDERAL WAY — Rebecca Yamada figures that generally stuff occurs and you must make the most effective of it.
For her teammate Medea Rusu, generally great things occurs.
Yamada and Rusu, each from Ridgefield, capped off their senior seasons by incomes runner-up finishes on the Class 2A women swimming state meet Saturday on the King County Aquatic Heart.
Yamada positioned second within the 100-yard breaststroke, whereas Rusu was the runner-up within the 100 backstroke.
“It really means a lot,” Rusu stated. “Going into this high school season, I didn’t really have a lot of training so I didn’t know what it would look like for me. And overall, I’m just really happy with my performance. It came with a lot of hard work.”
Rusu reduce greater than a half-second off her preliminary time to take second in 1 minute, 01.80 seconds, narrowly edging out two rivals for second place.
Like Rusu, Yamada additionally obtained off to a sluggish begin this fall after circumstances — or “stuff” as she put it — stored her out of the pool for the summer season.
Whereas she was the defending state champion within the breaststroke, she was nonetheless blissful along with her runner-up end in 1:09.81.
“I just wanted to do whatever I could do,” Yamada stated. “I was happy with whatever. My last race of my senior year. So it was just kind of ‘have fun.’ So I had fun.”
Yamada endured extra “stuff” in the course of the prelims on Friday, when she was disqualified from the 200 particular person medley.
“My goggles just completely flew off on the dive, which was not what I wanted,” she stated. “But things happen. Unfortunately, this happened at state. That’s OK. Something will happen no matter what level you’re swimming.”
Yamada was disqualified as a result of she didn’t contact the wall from her breaststroke to the freestyle along with her arms concurrently.
“Very minor thing,” she stated. “I couldn’t see the wall. So, hey, it’s all right.”
Paige Dangleis of Hockinson additionally completed her highschool swimming profession on Saturday, incomes a pair of top-4 finishes. She was third within the 200 particular person medley (2:11.45) and fourth within the 100 freestyle (54.11).
“I’m really proud of what I did,” Dangleis stated. “I changed up my events that I did from last year, and I think it was a good choice. … I’ve done the 100 free all four years, and I think that event alone is kind of tough, both physically and mentally. I was hoping for a different time, but I think what I did this year was pretty good.”
Rusu additionally earned a fifth-place displaying within the 200 free (2:04.72). Jordan Zaemann of Seton Catholic was fifth within the 500 freestyle in 5:33.31. Raegan Zaemann of Seton Catholic was fifth within the 100 breaststroke in 1:12.18.
Seton Catholic’s 400 free relay of the 2 Zaemanns, Rachel Graeme and Natalia Stiltner was fourth in 4:02.36, and the 200 free relay was sixth in 1:48.44.
Within the 4A meet Saturday night, Camas’ Lila McGeachy positioned third within the 500 freestyle, ending in 5:09.50, slicing greater than two seconds off her qualifying time. The senior additionally positioned seventh within the 200 freestyle in 1:56.80.