With nine top 16 finishes last weekend, the Juanita girls swim and dive program earned a ninth place state finish at the 3A state championships.

The crowning moment for the team was senior Celia Pinczower taking first place in the state diving competition with a final score of 404.3.

As a team, the Rebels finished with 124 points, just one point behind eighth place Holy Names Academy.

“We had a great state meet and the girls were really excited about their individual performance,” said head coach Dawn Maurer.

In the first even of the night, the 200-medley relay, the Rebels finished in 16th place with a time of 2:01.47. Swimming in the race were: Tess Farley, Rebekah Boyer, Kylie Battaglia and Megan Grichel.

Juanita’s Hanna Armstrong brought back a seventh place finish in the 200-yard freestyle race with a time of 1:57.62, while Rachael Kurtz had a fourth place finish in the 200-yard individual medley race. Kurtz picked up another fourth place finish with a 52.22 finish in the 100-yard freestyle, while Armstrong earned her second seventh place in the 500-yard freestyle marathon with a 5:15.45 race time. Kurtz’s finish in the 100-freestyle set a new school record, while she earned personal bests in both races.

As a team, in the 200-yard freestyle relay, the Rebels brought in a seventh place time of 1:43.16, thanks to swims from Kurtz, Grichel, Anna Michel and Armstrong. In sophomore Farley’s second individual race of the night she finished 11th overall in the 100-yard backstroke.

In the last event, the 400-yard freestyle relay, Juanita finished ninth, with swims from Kurtz, Michel, Grichel and Armstrong for a 3:54.56 time.

“Overall the season was so much fun from our swim across the lake, to hiking up Rattlesnake Ridge as a team all the way through the state meet,” said Maurer. “I am extremely lucky to have such a wonderful group of girls and the parents that support my program are amazing.”