SILVERDALE — The Port Angeles girls swim team traveled to Silverdale on Saturday to compete in the annual Swimvitational meet.
The competition was limited to just eight swimmers per school, with 11 teams represented. Port Angeles finished fourth overall, with every swimmer contributing points to the team total.
Port Angeles finished fourth out of 11 teams with 143 points. Gig Harbor won with 257 points.
Chloe Kay-Sanders led the Roughriders with 16 points, followed by Amayah Nelson with 14 and Ellie Karjalainen with 13. Kay-Sanders also earned the team’s top individual finish, placing fourth in the 200 individual medley.
“Chloe’s on a roll right now,” coach Sally Cole said. “She’s working hard, swimming smart, and the four personal bests speak for themselves.”
The 200 medley relay team of Lynzee Reid, Mia Francis, Kay-Sanders and Lizzy Shaw set up the Riders with 22 points and a fourth-place finish. Port Angeles touched just 0.63 seconds behind Olympic High School. The relay started about two seconds behind before Francis gained ground on the breaststroke leg, narrowing the gap to 0.44 seconds. Kay-Sanders cut Olympic’s lead further during the butterfly, closing to within 0.06 seconds. Shaw raced hard on the freestyle leg but was out-touched for third by just 0.63 seconds. Reid and Kay-Sanders each swam personal bests in their legs.
In the 200 freestyle, Nelson led the Riders with an eighth-place finish. Shaw and Francis took 10th and 11th, respectively. Lucy Townsend swam a personal best, dropping 4.48 seconds for a time of 2:26.91, just two seconds shy of a district qualifying mark.
Kay-Sanders swam a personal best of 2:38.61 in the 200 individual medley, a 0.33-second drop from last Wednesday. Freshman Anaya Tejeda had a tight back-and-forth race with a Peninsula High School swimmer for eighth place. Tejeda surged ahead on the 50 butterfly by four seconds, but her opponent rallied on the backstroke leg to take the lead. Tejeda made up ground in the final freestyle leg but was out-touched by just 0.01 seconds to finish ninth. Karjalainen finished 10th, close behind her teammate.
Kay-Sanders continued her strong meet with an eighth-place finish and another personal best in the 100 butterfly, shaving 0.13 seconds off her midweek time. Tejeda followed with a 10th-place finish in a quick turnaround.
Nelson added a sixth-place finish in the 500 freestyle, while Townsend placed seventh after a strong comeback. At the 250-yard mark, Townsend trailed by seven seconds, but by the 450-yard mark she had closed the gap to two seconds. She surged on the final lap to touch 0.04 seconds ahead and claim seventh.
The Riders entered two teams in the 200 freestyle relay. The A team of Reid, Tejeda, Shaw and Nelson battled Bremerton in a close race. After the opening leg, Port Angeles trailed, but Tejeda’s personal best in the 50 freestyle pulled them ahead by a second. Shaw held the lead through the third leg, and Nelson anchored with a personal best to secure fifth place, 0.23 of a second ahead of Bremerton.
Reid placed ninth in the 100 backstroke. The Riders’ breaststroke group continued to shine, with Karjalainen finishing fifth and Francis eighth.
The meet concluded with a strong sixth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay featuring Tejeda, Shaw, Nelson and Reid.
East Jefferson tallied 16 points in the meet.
Port Angeles travels to North Kitsap on Wednesday for its final dual meet of the season.
