Olympic second, Central Kitsap third at Olympic Swimvitational

EAST BREMERTON — They were away from the pool for nearly a week thanks to the recent snowstorm, but the Olympic Trojans brought everything they had to Saturday’s swimvitational held at the Olympic Aquatic Center.

Their efforts weren’t enough to dethrone defending champion Gig Harbor, but Olympic swimmers won three events to grab a second place finish.

The always-tough Tides had an even greater advantage this year as Gig Harbor High School did not miss a day of school this past week. Olympic had a meet Thursday against Bremerton and then one day of practice on Friday.

“They came prepared to race,” said Olympic junior Rainer Meyer.

Junior Dietrich Meyer won the 200- and 100-yard freestyle for the Trojans. The 200 was notable because he had to hold off a good charge from teammate Ryan Burchell, who ended up finishing less than three seconds behind him. Meyer’s time was one minute, 48.81 seconds.

“My 200, I was actually pretty happy with,” Dietrich Meyer said. “That was a really fun race.”

Meyer dominated the 100 with a time of 49.16, swimming splits of 23.21 and 25.95 — not a bad race for an athlete that had to spend a few days away from the pool.

Burchell grabbed victory in one of his best events, the 500-yard freestyle. For most of the race, it looked like he’d be on cruise control at the end, but Gig Harbor’s Drew Huston picked up the pace and challenged him over the last 200 yards. Burchell came up with a 29.08 final 50 yards to finish in 5:03.74, less than two-tenths of a second ahead of Huston.

“He had a really nice second half,” Burchell said. “That was really good competition because I was fading and dying a little bit and I saw him come up.”

Dietrich Meyer, Rainer Meyer and Burchell each swam two state-qualifying times — Dietrich Meyer in the 200 and 100 freestyle, Burchell in the 200 and 500 freestyle and Rainer Meyer in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke. Olympic’s 200 and 400 freestyle relays also qualified.

Central Kitsap’s James Sanchez finished third in the Swimmer of the Meet standings. He won the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:02.97 and finished second in the 100-yard backstroke. Sanchez was also part of Central Kitsap’s third place 400-yard freestyle relay team with Caden Chandler, Ethan Hutton and Joseph Sandoval.

Kingston’s Rocco Velie scored a state time in the 50-freestyle, hitting the qualifying time right on the nose at 22.95. The Kingston 200-yard medley relay team of Evan Yamane, Alex McCollum, Tyler Lanning and Zawadi Leon also posted a respectable 2:00.26, which gave them a second place finish.

Spencer Grubb and Sean Markow each picked up second place finishes for North Kitsap. Grubb finished just behind London Coats of Gig Harbor with a time of 1:01.87 in the 100-yard butterfly. Markow took second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:08.18.

Kitsap teams return to league action next week. Jan. 23 will see the Olympic League’s last two undefeated teams, Olympic and Kingston go head-to-head at the Olympic Aquatic Center in a dual meet that could have major league title implications.

2019 Olympic Swimvitational

Team scores — Gig Harbor, 77, first; Olympic, 40, second; Central Kitsap, 17, third; North Kitsap, 16, fourth; Kingston, 10.5, fifth; Bremerton, 6.5, sixth; Klahowya, 3, seventh.

Event results (locals only)

200-yard medley relay — Kingston “A” (Yamane, McCollum, Laning, Leon), 2:00.06, second; North Kitsap “A” (Maberry, Powell, Parry, Rees), 2:02.76, third; Olympic “A” (Bottai, Leong, Morrey, Macaz0), 2:07.57, fourth; Bremerton (S. Gill, Isenhart, Myers, B. Gill), 2:08.34, fifth.

200-yard freestyle — Dietrich Meyer, Olympic, 1:48.81, first; Ryan Burchell, Olympic, 1:51.18, second; Alex Huang, Central Kitsap, 2:05.27, fifth; Damien Miller, Central Kitsap, 2:05.41, sixth; Kyle Marquez, Klahowya, 2:10.86, seventh.

200-yard individual medley — James Sanchez, Central Kitsap, 2:02.97, first; Spencer Gill, Bremerton, 2:18.31, third; Matthew Morrey, Olympic, 2:26.36, fourth; Rowan Powell, North Kitsap, 2:32.02, fifth.

50-yard freestyle — Rainer Meyer, Olympic, 22.64, third; Rocco Velie, Kingston, 22.95, fourth; Joseph Sandoval, Central Kitsap, 23.84, fifth; Evan Yamane, Kingston, 24.36, sixth; Brandon Gill, Bremerton, 24.59, seventh.

100-yard butterfly — Spencer Grubb, North Kitsap, 1:01.87, second; Matthew Morrey, Olympic, 1:06.43, third; Andrew Parry, North Kitsap, 1:07.34, fourth; Brandon Gill, Bremreton, 1:07.81, t-fifth; Tyler Lanning, Kingston, 1:07.81, t-fifth.

100-yard freestyle — Dietrich Meyer, Olympic, 49.16, first; Spencer Gill, Bremerton, 53.41, third; August Maberry, North Kitsap, 53.92, fourth; Evan Yamane, Kingston, 54.26, fifth; Joseph Sandoval, Central Kitsap, 54.41, sixth.

500-yard freestyle — Ryan Burchell, Olympic, 5:03.74, first; Ethan Hutton, Central Kitsap, 5:32.24, fifth; Damien Miller, Central Kitsap, 5:32.95, sixth; Gage Hendryx, North Kitsap, 5:36.77, seventh.

200-yard freestyle relay — Olympic “A” (R. Meyer, Shelton, Burchell, D. Meyer), 1:35.62, second; Kingston “A” (Yamane, Leon, Near, Velie), 1:38.60, third; Central Kitsap “A” (Boydon, Huang, Fox, Miller), 1:45.11, fourth; North Kitsap “A” (Markow, Prantil, Parry, Grubb), 1:46.67, fifth; Bremerton “A” (Myers, B. Gill, S. Gill, Peli), 1:46.77, sixth.

100-yard backstroke — James Sanchez, Central Kitsap, 53.93, second; Rainer Meyer, Olympic, 54.63, fourth; Rocco Velie, Kingston, 58.62, fifth; Kyle Marquez, Klahowya, 1:05.18, seventh; Alex Huang, Central Kitsap, 1:06.74, eighth.

100-yard breaststroke — Sean Markow, North Kitsap, 1:08.18, second; Alex Oathout, Klahowya, 1:12.96, third; Ethan Hutton, Central Kitsap, 1:15.20, fourth; Rowan Powell, North Kitsap, 1:16.67, fifth; Benji Eudeline, Kingston, 1:17.67, sixth.

400-yard freestyle relay — Olympic “A” (R. Meyer, Burchell, Morrey, D. Meyer), 3:27.87, second; Central Kitsap “A” (Sanchez, Chandler, Hutton, Sandoval, 3:39.50, third; Central Kitsap “B” (Boydon, Huang, Fox, Miller), 3:57.80, fourth; Kingston “A” (Velie, Eudeline, Grant, Near), 4:14.36, fifth; Bremerton “A” (Isenhart, Peli, Urrutia, Tang), 5:00.68, sixth.