Stellar sophomore: Le’s two state titles cap incredible season

Just days into the 2015 season, Squalicum girls’ swim coach Randy Elsner knew Yanran Le was going to have a phenomenal year.

She had already finished fourth in the breaststroke and sixth in the 200 individual medley at state her freshman season and yet, she was even better.

The youthful star didn’t fall short of Elsner’s early expectations, winning a Class 2A state title in the breaststroke and playing an instrumental role in the Storm’s 200 medley relay winning a state title and setting a state meet record. She also took second in the 200 individual medley at the 2A state championships.

Le was a huge part of Squalicum’s second-place team finish, and for her efforts has been selected the 2015 All-Whatcom County Girls’ Swimmer of the Year.

“It’s one of those things, you look at a swimmer and you can tell they’re on fire,” Elsner said of his early thoughts on Le. “She looked really good.”

While Elsner thought Le had a great chance to win a title in the breaststroke, it seemed a near certainty with the 200 medley relay team, which came up just a second shy of All-American consideration.

Serena Allendorfer was excellent in the backstroke, Le was spectacular in the breaststroke, Olivia Nielsen was very good in the butterfly and freshman Tiana Varang was great in the freestyle.

“From day one, when I realized what I had, I thought this is going to be the state champion,” Elsner said.

Le was key in making that happen. As the second leg in the relay, the sophomore’s job was to give the third leg the lead or at least be somewhat close so Nielsen just had to swim and not worry about the competition.

When the state finals came around, Le did just that, and the Storm had more than a second lead after two legs.

“That relay team was great,” Le said in a phone interview “We just had to make sure we did everything right. ... It all turned out how we wanted.”

While the state champion relay team was well ahead of the rest of the field in seed time, Le had stiff competition in the breaststroke.

Archbishop Murphy’s Danielle Booth, who had won the state title in 2014, had been Le’s fiercest competitor the past two years. Le had beaten her at the district meeet both her freshman and sophomore seasons, but she knew Booth was going to put up an excellent state time.

“I had heard from the Archbishop coach that Danielle Booth was not happy that she wasn’t the No. 1 seed,” Elsner said.

So Le had to swim her best race, and she did just that, coming in four seconds faster than last year’s state time to top Booth by a full second.

“That was something special,” Elsner said. “Danielle was first at the 50, but Yanie was so close to her. ... She just took off and had her by a good second.”

For Le, she knew she was close at the halfway point and didn’t realize until she had touched the wall she had won the title.

“I was really shocked,” Le said of the moment.

Le, who swims year-round for Bellingham Bay Swim Team said she’ll likely return for her junior and senior high school seasons, as long as she can find the time as her schedule gets busier. If Le does return, she’ll again be one of the elite swimmers in the league and surely has a shot to break a few more school records.

This story was originally published December 17, 2015 at 2:08 PM with the headline "Stellar sophomore: Le’s two state titles cap incredible season."