She broke a meet record last time out; here’s what she did in the state preliminaries

Squalicum senior Yanran Le posted the fastest qualifying time in the 100 breaststroke to highlight Whatcom’s County’s performance in the Class 3A State Girls Swimming Preliminaries Friday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Le, who six days earlier broke the Class 3A Northwest District Meet record with her time of 1 minute, 5.35 seconds in the event, shave nearly a second and a half off that time, finishing the event in a blistering 1:03.88. Stanwood’s Jetlyn Hau had the second fastest qualifying time in 1:04.49 Friday.

That was not all for Le, as she also posted the third-fastest preliminary time in the 200 individual medley with her time of 2:07.93, as she qualified for the event finals in both events. The times of the top three swimmers in the IM are within less than a second of each other.

“She looked crisp; she looked strong,” Squalicum coach Randy Elsner said. “We’re hoping for some good things tomorrow.”

Le, who has committed to swim for Columbia University next year, finished runner up in the 100 breaststroke as a junior and was fifth in the IM.

Squalicum’s Helene Synnott also had an impressive day, as she stands third in the diving competition after the semifinals with a score of 276.35, less than 14 points behind leader Kayli Kersavage from Snohomish (290.20).

Ferndale’s Kyrie Fairbairn also qualified for the consolation finals in the 200 freestyle with the 14th-fastest qualifying mark (2:01.31).

Class 2A

Sehome’s Grace Kim will swim in three different state finals events after placing in Friday’s Class 2A State Girls Swimming Preliminaries at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Kim placed third in the 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:06.77, sixth in the 200 IM (2:17.44) and helped Sehome finish fifth in the 200 medley relay (1:57.53) with teammates Joyce Kim, Sarah Leung and Marianna Kemp.

Joyce Kim will also swim in the state finals on day two as she placed eighth in the 100 backstroke with her time of 1:02.08.

Bellingham’s Carley Preator had a third-place finish in the diving prelims with a score of 136.00. Mei Personius will swim in the consolation finals as she placed 15th (102.75).

Sarah Jones will swim in two consolation finals as a member of Lynden’s 200 medley relay team with Damara Gerbrandt, Megan Rouse and Aleya DeBoer which placed 16th (2:04.35) and in the 50 freestyle with the 14th-fastest qualifying mark (26.11)

Sehome’s 200 freestyle relay team of Wanling Kratzman, Yoshimi Lin, Aidia Nyman, and Leung placed 14th with a time of 1:50.07.

Bellingham’s Avey Bathum (1:12.37) and Wanling Kratzman of Sehome (1:13.66) finished 10th and 15th respectively in the 100 breaststroke.

Sehome will have another relay team swim, but this time in the 400 freestyle consolation finals as Grace Kim, Leung, Kemp and Joyce Kim finished 11th (3:56.61).

Hall of Fame

Former Sehome swimmer Megan Thompson-Wall, who now lives in Seattle, will be inducted into the Washington Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association Hall of Fame at 7 p.m. Saturday before the Class 2A championships.

Thompson-Wall graduated in 1994, after helping the Mariners to three second-place finishes at state and a state title. Individually, she won Class 3A the 100 backstroke title in 1990, ’92 and ’93 and was a part of five state champion relay teams. She also holds or was part of “a number of Sehome school records.”

Thompson-Wall becomes the second Bellingham swimmer to enter the Hall, joining 1960s Bellingham swimmer John Wilson.

This story was originally published November 10, 2017 at 11:26 PM with the headline "She broke a meet record last time out; here’s what she did in the state preliminaries."