Area Sports by Michael Dashiell

When the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way hosts the first class 2A-only boys swimming championships, Sequim athletes will be there.

Two divers - Max Flock and Ezra Perkins - join the Wolves' 200 medley relay team at the state meet Saturday after Sequim finished second only to swimming powerhouse Interlake at the West Central District meet at Hazen High School in Renton last week.

"(We) did well especially considering we didn't attend last year," Sequim head coach Linda Bingler said. "Many of the boys swam better times in finals than in the prelims but some didn't. Nerves, probably."

Flock was the only Sequim athlete to qualify immediately by finishing first in the diving portion of the district meet. With the only three entries, Sequim swept the diving portion at districts, giving a big boost to the Wolves' team score.

But Perkins and the relay squad got invites to the meet Sunday night, giving Sequim the most invitations to the state meet since the sport developed at Sequim High School in 2000-2001.

Only once has Sequim advanced more than one diver to the state meet (Jeremiah Jackson in the 100 breaststroke in 2001). In previous years, Sequim competed at the state 2A/3A meet, but this year, state swim officials have split the 2A and 3A classifications.

Sequim freshman Noe Calderon posted a pair of top-four finishes at the district meet; he finished fourth in the 200 individual medley with a 2:27.68 finish, two seconds better than his previous best, and took second in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:13.16 mark, two seconds off Interlake swimmer Hayden Ray's time and an automatic state berth.

Calderon also helped

Sequim's 200 medley relay team take second behind Interlake, and the assisted 200 free relay team in their third-place finish behind Interlake and Steilacoom.

Other members of Sequim's 200 medley and 200 free relay teams - Parker Steichen, Alex Skinner and Thomas Moores - had strong swims at districts.

Moores finished fifth in two events: the 50 free and 100 butterfly. Steichen was fourth in the 100 breaststroke and sixth in the 200 IM while Skinner picked up a fifth-place finish in the 100 backstroke and a sixth-place finish in the 200 free.

Senior Steven Moore was third in the 100 fly with a 1:11.40 finish. The time was seven seconds better than his previous best.

In diving, Perkins was second to Flock in diving by less than two points (Flock scored 193.20 points to Perkins' 191.65) and Zach Springer was third with 173.25 points.

Flock added a fifth-place finish in the 100 free.

Triston Cortani was sixth in the same event - a fine feat considering he lost his goggles in the finals and had to do two open turns to make sure he touched the wall, Bingler said.

Tanner Estep finished sixth in both the 500 free and 100 back events.

Sequim's 400 free relay squad finished second but was disqualified for a bad exchange.

"I think overall they did pretty well - a lot of the kids dropped time," Bingler said. "Some of the kids were sick, so we did pretty well."

Reach Michael Dashiell at miked@sequimgazette.com.