Storm’s Hegeberg wins breaststroke state title, Sehome places third

Squalicum senior Jonathan Hegeberg claimed the state title in the 100 breaststroke at the Class 2A Boys’ Swimming State Championships on Saturday, Feb. 20, at the King County Aquatic Center.

“I’ve been doing high school swimming for four years straight and this meet was kind of like the end-all for my high school career,” Hegeberg said. “It was a good note to end on.”

He dropped four seconds from his time last year at state, when Hegeberg placed 11th.

His win marks the sixth time in the eight years the 2A state meet has been held that a Whatcom County swimmer has won the breaststroke title, as he joins Sehome’s Austin Fish (2009-10), Squalicum’s Gus Evans (2011) and Sehome’s Patrick Gregory (2012-13) as champions in the event.

Hegeberg turned in an unofficial time of 1 minute, 0.39 seconds, beating his time in the preliminaries on Friday, Feb. 19, which was second fastest to Highline’s Tyler Goodspped, by 37 hundredths of a second.

Sehome claims third

Sehome finished third overall with 189 team points, as the Northwest District swept the top three spots — Anacortes won the championship with 231.5 points, while Shorecrest was second with 207.

“We went into the meet in sixth place so our hope was to improve enough to vie for a trophy,” Sehome coach Don Helling said in a phone interview. “We did that and more.”

The Mariners were powered by their three relays, as Calvin Richan, Joesph Adams, David Leung and Brian Whitney combined to place second in the 200 medley relay not even a quarter second behind champion Kingston, Adams, Whitney, Leung and Colin Hakeman placed third in the 200 freestyle relay, and Leung, Whitney, Richan and Hakeman placed sixth in the 400 freestyle relay.

Hakeman also swam to a fourth-place finish in the 500 freestyle and fifth place in the 200 freestyle. Whitney placed fifth in the 50 freestyle, and Leung matched him with a fifth-placing showing in the 100 butterfly. Adams placed seventh in the 50 free, while Payton Johnson was eighth in the 500 freestyle.

Storm finishes eighth

Squalicum also had a strong finish as a team, placing eighth.

In addition to Hegeberg’s win in the breaststroke, Wilson Dierforff placed second in diving with a score of 348.55. Franz Allendorfer, Hegeberg, Matt Lovell and Winter Gariss also placed fourth in the 200 medley relay.

“Wilson’s dive was fantastic,” Elsner said. “He’s actually done better, but it was a good day for him overall with second place.”

Bellingham divers finish strong

The Red Raiders’ final day was highlighted by divers Brennan Drew and Koa Hanks, who placed third and fourth in the diving competition, respectively.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 9:01 PM with the headline "Storm’s Hegeberg wins breaststroke state title, Sehome places third."