People counted them out. People said that taking a fifth state championship this year would be difficult, and people wondered if they had it in them.
Doubters have now been silenced, and the Mercer Island boys swimming team knows it is the best.
The Islanders won their fifth consecutive state title with 396 points last Saturday, going far above and beyond Bellevue’s 188 second-place finish. Mercer Island scored the second most points in state history, a title that the 2009 team holds after posting a 475-point win at state last year.
“The coolest part to me is seeing the boys come together,” said head coach Chauntelle Johnson. “At the end of the day, even if they didn’t finish well individually, they walked away with a team title and no one can take that away from them. It was a lot of hard work, it was a lot of icing and going to 5 a.m. practice … people don’t always see that. This was the culmination of all that work.”
The Islanders won four titles in the meet, with three of them going to the relay teams. Junior Jimmy Deiparine won the team’s only individual title, posting a 1:00.17 finish in the 100-meter breaststroke race.
“It was really great,” said Johnson of Deiparine’s title. “I know he wanted to be a little faster. He’s a quiet kid and to see him get out of the water with a smile was great.”
Mercer Island resident and Eastside Catholic student Ethan Hallowell took two individual titles, giving him six individual titles in his high school swimming career. This year Hallowell earned his third straight 100 freestyle state title, beating Islander Ian Fisk by 1.08 seconds for the title.
Johnson said Fisk wasn’t disappointed in his second-place finish because he had said all season that he wanted to swim against the best, knowing it would push him.
“To walk away with second place isn’t too shabby,” said Johnson. “I was proud of him. Ethan is a very good swimmer.”
Johnson said many members of the team had standout performances last weekend, and the team title was a great way to show it. She said Matthew Wiens had a great swim, finishing eighth in the 200-meter freestyle.
“He had been sick the week before, so he didn’t go as fast as he wanted, but it was great to see him come in and grow,” said Johnson of the swimmer.
“So many kids surpassed my expectations, and I set them pretty high at the beginning of the season,” she said.
The record-setting fifth straight win for the boys also set a new standard for the swim program. It was the first time since the 1997/1998 school year that the girls and boys swim teams won back-to-back state titles.
Johnson said she plans to return to coach the Mercer Island girls next fall.
Team scores – Mercer Island 396, Bellevue 188, Lakeside 171, Mount Rainier 170
FINALS
200 medley relay – 1, Mercer Island (Taylor Seidel, Jimmy Deiparine, Quinn Markwith, Duncan Howard) 1:39.05. 200 free – 1, Ethan Hallowell, Eastside Catholic, 1:40.48; 2, Ian Fisk, Mercer Island, 1:41.24; 8, Matthew Wiens, Mercer Island, 1:48.41. 200 IM – 2, Andy Wingerson, Mercer Island, 1:56.63; 5, Taylor Seidel, Mercer Island, 1:57.18. 50 free – 3, Robbie Homchick, Mercer Island, 22.02; 4, Will Voit, Mercer Island, 22.27. 100 fly – 7, Quinn Markwith, Mercer Island, 53.77. 100 free – 1, Hallowell, Eastside Catholic, 45.67; 2, Fisk, Mercer Island, 46.75; 5, Eric Benca, Mercer Island, 49.33; 6, Theo Danciu, Mercer Island, 49.39. 500 free – 6, Matthew Wiens, Mercer Island, 4:46.07. 200 free relay – 1, Mercer Island (Fisk, Will Voit, Howard, Homchick) 1:27.58. 100 back – 4, Taylor Seidel, Mercer Island, 53.13. 100 breast – 1, Deiparine, Mercer Island, 1:00.17; 4, Andy Wingerson, Mercer Island, 1:01.56. 400 free relay – 1, Mercer Island (Theo Danciu, Howard, Wingerson, Fisk) 3:13.11.
