Sports Roundup - Swimmers split meets with Rainier, Newport/New lineup helps spikers/Poloists at .500

As season winds down, Spartans ready for the postseason.

With the season coming to a close, the Bainbridge girls’ swim and dive team are starting to turn their focus toward the postseason.

They lost to Newport 98-88 on Tuesday, but rebounded to defeat Mt. Rainier on Friday.

Head coach Greg Colby said the team has been swimming better as of late.

“I think they’ve responded to the training,” he said. “We worked them real hard last week and they’re pretty dang tired. We’ve had some kids out because some were sick and some were just broken down (from swimming.)

“But they’re going to have to (work hard) if they want a shot against Mercer Island,” he continued, noting that the Islanders won the Mukilteo Invite Sept. 29 with 893 points – 367.5 more than their second place finisher.

All three relays won their events.

The 200 medley relay of Isabel Williams, Julie Pendleton, India Wade and Tessa Griffin swam a state qualifying time of 1:59.07 while the 200 freestyle relay team of Griffin, Pendleton, Gabby Arens and Beall scored a state qualifying time of 1:45.87.

The 400 relay team of Wade, Kristine Valdez, Williams and Beall had a state qualifying time of 3:50.65.

Williams also had a state qualifying time of 1:01.02 in the 100 butterfly and a state qualifying time of 1:03.81 in the 100 backstroke, both first place finishes.

Beall had a state qualifying time of 1:59.51 with her second place finish in the 200 freestyle and a state qualifying time of 56.28 with her first place finish in the 100 freestyle.

Pendleton had a state qualifying time of 2:17.80 in the 200 IM and a district time of 1:13 in the 100 breaststroke, both first place finishes.

Griffin scored a pair of district qualifying times; a mark of 26.47 with her first place finish in the 50 freestyle and a time of 1:03.42 in the 100 butterfly.

She said they’ve refocused themselves after their meet against the Knights on Tuesday.

Even with their top swimmers spread out over several events, Griffin said she’s not worried about them breaking down anytime soon.

“We’ve been training really hard but our coaches know when we’re tapering off so we’re going to start working on things like technique and focusing on the smaller parts that are going to make us a lot faster,” she said.

“Right now we’re really tired so we’re not swimming well, but when we’re not tired and our muscles are ready to swim, we’re going to drop times like that.”

Colby said they’ll need more swimmers to contribute like Anna Wood, who scored district times in the 200 freestyle, the 100 butterfly and helped two relays to third place finishes.

The Spartans lost to Mercer 102.5-67.5 on Saturday as part of the Dual Meet Series.

Beall won the 100 freestyle while Williams won the 100 backstroke.

At the KingCo 3A district diving meet, Kate McKenzie and Shelby Mann scored district qualifying scores of 271.85 and 263.35, respectively.

New lineup helps spikers

The Bainbridge volleyball team switched some players around as they took ninth at the Monroe Invitational last weekend.

They lost to Central Kitsap 23-25 and 23-25, split with Lake Stevens 25-22 and 17-25, lost to sixth ranked Kamiak 16-25 and 13-25.

They lost to Camas in a one game playoff 3-15 but came back to beat Issaquah 25-20 and 25-18 and Everett 25-18 and 25-22.

For the tournament, Kelcey Dunaway had 42 kills, nine blocks, 32 digs and five aces.

Chelsea Bell had 52 assists while Hillary Grant had 35 digs.

Head coach Julie Miller said she switched the lineup around again, but thinks it will help in the long run.

“We’re just not getting enough kills from our outside hitters so I moved Kelcey to outside,” she said. “We’re going to run a 6-2 (offense) and we’re going to try it this week to see if it wasn’t a fluke that it worked at the tournament.”

The Spartans played Lakeside yesterday, then take on Eastside Catholic tomorrow in the last home game of the regular season.

They need to win both to hold off Holy Names for second place.

Poloists at .500 for year

They’re struggling to find teams to come to the island, but Team Ray head coach Jeff Clark said he’s happy with how the team is going.

“We’re doing really good,” he said. “(But) turnovers have been our problem.

“I kinda like 16 turnovers as a rule, but we had 23 turnovers (one game) and 26 turnovers the next game. We limit our turnovers, we’re going to get a lot better.”

Team Ray currently sports a record of 5-5.

They’re scheduled to play Mercer Island this Friday at 6:30 p.m. Check www.teamray.org for more details and news on game cancellations.

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