SHELTON — Though the North Kitsap boys’ swim and dive team was out-matched by a veteran Shelton squad and several Viking swimmers could not compete due to ineligibility issues Thursday, the team has reason to believe things are looking up.

“This is a good starting point,” said Coach Greg Braun. “For a lot of the guys, they’ve already swam their fastest time from last year. It’s only going to get faster.”

Another plus is veteran Piranha Club swimmers Mikal Reeves and Leo Keliher both qualified for the district meet in two events. Reeves qualified in the 200-meter individual medley, with a 2:25:03 time and in the 100-meter breaststroke, with a 1:18:20. Keliher qualified in the 100-meter butterfly, with a 1:09:47 time and in the 100-meter backstroke, with a 1:14:80.

Most of the team’s adversity came because of ineligible swimmer and divers, which the team either had to forfeit, or fill with another swimmer. The result was a fatigued Viking team.

“We were trying our hardest out there,” team captain William Almond said. “We had to fill a lot of spots … our guys were trying events they’d never done before, but being fearless out there.”

But a strong Shelton team proved formidable.

“We’ve got a group of four guys from last year who got third at state,” Shelton coach Chad Youngquist said. “When you have four guys like that, it means you have a fast person in every event.”

If the Vikings can get more swimmers eligible, Almond added, they’ll be able to be more competitive with experienced teams like Shelton. And the team may have rectified its lack of divers dilemma — six novice boys have tried out but unfortunately, all are ineligible.

“All the new divers are starting from scratch,” Braun said. “If they’re good athletes, we could have three by Tuesday (for the Bainbridge meet) and six in a week. It depends on athletic ability, coachability and guts.”

Braun said he believes the Shelton match gives him a good indication of where the team is at — and where it can improve. Unfortunately, the swimmers won’t have much room to practice over the next few weeks due to an intense match schedule.

“We have a few surprises,” Braun said. “Some of the new guys are swimming faster than expected. And this (meet) gives us base line times to see if we’re getting faster or not. With so many meets, they’re going to reach a plateau.”

The Vikings will face Bainbridge in their first home meet of the season at 3:30 p.m. Dec. 9 at the North Kitsap pool.