The battle for Kirkland bragging rights shifted to girls swimming on Oct. 20 as Juanita beat Lake Washington 132-51 at Juanita Pool.
“We have a friendly rivalry,” said Lake Washington girls swimming head coach John Van Velthuyzen. “We share the same pool and practice after them so some our girls know some of their swimmers. It is just fun competition.”
Juanita, which finished second in state last year, used all of its firepower to earn 11 first-place finishes out of the 12 events contested.
“It is a different meet than it used to be. I don’t think we really have a rivalry any more cause the girls are so close,” said Juanita girls swim head coach Dawn Mauer. “Maybe in the back of their heads they think about it. But it is just a joy to swim against them.”
The only first place swim for the Kangs came during the 100-yard breaststroke, as Sally LaFramboise swam to a time of 1:19.38.
“It is always good for them to see great swimmers race and hopefully they can take some things they see and it will help their own stroke,” said Van Velthuyzen.
The Rebels began the onslaught from the first event as Tess Farley, Hanna Armstrong, Kelly Tannhauser and Emilie Kaufman teamed up to win the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 2:00.24. Juanita’s Rachael Kurtz won the 200-yard freestyle in a district qualifying time of 2:01.03, while Tannhauser took first in the 200-yard individual medley (2:18.97). Tannhauser also touched the wall first during the 100-yard butterfly with a district qualifying time of 1:00.67.
The 50-yard freestyle went to Kaufman, who raced to a district qualifying time of 24.40, and then followed it up with another district qualifying victory in the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.11).
Rebel Celia Pinczower followed her KingCo 3A diving title, which she earned just one week previous, with a 230.45 point performance for first place during the meet.
“She is diving exceptionally well,” said Mauer. “She has really improved on her degree of difficulty. She is just junior and working year round helps a lot.”
Armstrong also earned another district qualifying mark, this time in the 100-yard freestyle (55.99) while teammate Kati Noll placed first with a time of 6:03.71 in the 500-yard freestyle.
Juanita swept all the relays including the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays. Kaufman, Armstrong, Kurtz and Tannhauser won the 200 in a time of 1:40.67, while Armstrong, Grichel, Wilson and Kurtz teamed up to take the 400 with a time of 3:55.64.
Both teams are now looking forward to post-season events. For Juanita, the 3A KingCo meet on Mercer Island will be a tune up for districts and state.
“We are more looking for some of our girls to go for district and state qualifying times than we are looking to win the meet,” said Mauer. “It is tough to swim three weekends in a row and we want to save those great swims for districts and state.”
The two teams will race again Thursday, Oct. 22 and take advantage of the double dual meet to raise awareness for breast cancer. Some of the swimmers involved in the meet will wear pink swim caps as a part of the event.
