Area Sports by Michael Dashiell

An early Christmas present, perhaps?

With a 30-point win against visiting Bremerton last Tuesday - the last meet before students broke for the holidays - Sequim's Wolves are now 3-1 and poised to have their first winning season since 2003-2004.

Sequim won just five of the 14 events outright against the Knights on Dec. 16, but the Wolves outscored Bremerton in eight events total, thanks to Sequim's comparatively deep roster, winning 107-77.

Alex Skinner won two events, dropping 23 seconds off his 200 free time winning the event by 13-hundreths of a second. He earned a second victory by topping the field in the 100 backstroke with a personal-best 1:28.53, 11 seconds better than teammate Parker Steichen.

Noe Calderon won the 50 free in 26.52 seconds while Triston Cortani was second with a 28.89 finish. Cortani finished third in the 100 free and improved his previous best by eight seconds - impressive considering his goggles slipped off and he took in mouthfuls of water, coach Linda Bingler said.

"(Triston) is turning into a good swimmer; I expect his (100 free) time to drop," she said.

Cortani and Skinner recorded solid splits to help the 200 free relay squad post a 1:56.93 mark, good for second.

Bingler said she was particularly impressed with her 400 free relay team - Calderon, Skinner, Tanner Estep and Tommy Moores - who swam the best relay time of the season to date by 17 seconds.

"It was fantastic to watch," Bingler said.

Thomas Moores dropped 11 seconds from his previous 100 butterfly best time while Estep dropped 27 seconds from his previous 500 free best - a full 1:10 improvement since last season.

Sequim swept the top three spots in diving as well; Stephan Stilts took first with 133 points followed by Frank Catelli (123.55) and Kris Peterson (121.6).

"Some of (the veterans) are making progress toward their goals," Bingler said following the meet. "A lot of the newer swimmers are still daunted by the distances and the strokes."

Bremerton's J.R. Ramos-Yapp won the 200 IM and 100 butterfly to lead the Knights.

The Wolves are out of action until Jan. 8 when they host the Olympic Trojans.