The Shorecrest High School Boys Swim and Dive team has gone through a year of considerable improvement, scoring third overall. While the team had previously struggled through their normal league matches, they have done better this year than they have in over a decade. Out of their total of 12 meets, they have won, and tied in their first meet against Edmonds Woodway High School, even winning the Shorecrest vs Shorewood meet 107 – 79. “We’ve only won that meet once, in twenty years,” said Boys Swim and Dive captain, Ryan Hallgrimson, “It was my freshman year, we won it. It had been eighteen years since we last won it.”

A lot of the credit, according to Hallgrimson, goes to the freshman athletes who have joined the team this year, “Andrew Harness, he’s unrealistically fast, and then, Gavin Kelley too. He’s just off the A-relay, he’s so close in the 400-relay.” Yet, it is not only the new swimmers who have been improving the team, “A lot of our older swimmers are continuing to drop time. This year, we have a lot of depth on our team.” This was aided by swimmers like Eric Prieve, and Andrew Harness, who have backgrounds in competitive swimming. “Just having kids on the team who are already experienced makes a big difference.”

This improvement is what carried the team through Districts this year, as the Shorecrest swimmers scored a total of five points more than last year at their final meet, solidifying their place as third overall.  Though the team still struggled for their place, it reminded many of them why they stuck with the sport to begin with. “It’s a fun competitive spirit,” said Hallgrimson, “especially having freshmen on the A-relay is really fun, because you know for the future of the team that they’re going to be really fast.”