Area Sports by Michael Dashiell

At their last chance to set personal best marks, the Wolves’ swim squad produced 14 new top marks at the Divisional Meet Jan. 29 in Port Angeles.

But with no marks achieving the West Central District 2A/3A meet standards, the season is over for 21 Wolves swimmers and all but one of the team’s four divers.

Jay Barton, a senior, scored 251.1 points at the divisional meet and is scheduled to compete at the Feb. 1 district meet at Hazen High School in Renton.

At the divisional meet, Sequim picked up four second-place finishes, including Steffen Estep in the 100 fly (1:08.09), Parker Steichen in the 100 breast (1:20.15) and both 200 medley relay (2:07.51) and 400 free relay (4:21.14) teams.

Steichen bettered his 200 individual medley time by 10 seconds while Travis Smith topped his previous 100 fly time by 11 seconds. Brett Cain made a seven-second improvement in his 100 free time.

Other Sequim swimmers making improvements included Erik Galasso (100 breast), Taylor Lepper (100 back, 100 free), Thomas Moores (100 free), Steven Moore (100 free), Alex Skinner (100 free) and Steichen (100 breast), plus 200 free and 400 free medley relay team times.

To make up for a weather-postponed meet against Olympic, Wolves’ coach Linda Bingler decided to score a meet from Dec. 13 that included Sequim, Olympic and Port Angeles that, at the time, Sequim chose not to score. With the meet now on the book — a 90-88 win for Olympic featuring three first-place swims for Sequim — the Wolves finish the 2007-08 season with a 2-10 mark.

“Some of the other coaches remarked on how well-behaved my team was (at the divisional meet) and I felt most proud of that as I believe a team mirrors the attitude and behavior of the coaches,” Bingler said. “I am very proud of the entire team’s motivation, hard work, teamwork, and the progress each of them made with their own individual swimming. They were a great group of guys, always willing to do what I asked and generally cheerful.”

Bingler and the Wolves could see up to 14 returnees next winter. Bingler says she has high hopes for next year’s squad and, in particular, for Moores, Steichen, Lepper, Smith, Alex Skinner, Ezra Perkins, Nick Bowden and Tanner Estep.