The photo finish comes in the raucus atmosphere at the UW aquatic center.

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON – Keziah Beall was still shaking from all the noise and the pressure.

“It was real intense,” she said. “It was unbelievable.”

But even with the crowd whipping itself into a frenzy, the Spartan junior got it done by outswimming Bellevue’s Ashley MacLean on the anchor leg during the 400 freestyle relay at the 3A Sea-King District 2 meet, Friday at the Hec Edmundson Pool at the University of Washington in Seattle.

It was a photo finish, as Beall beat out MacLean by one-one hundredth of a second to help Bainbridge finish with a time of 3:40.65 to Bellevue’s 3:40.66.

It’s the fourth straight year that Bainbridge has won a district title in that event and the time was only 0.59 hundredths of a second behind last year’s time.

“I thought she (MacLean) had me,” Beall said. “I thought she touched first. I was really scared because they (the third leg swimmers) were right next to each other and all I could think was, ‘Oh my god!’”

“It’s just so fun to see Keziah put her head down and charge for the wall,” said head coach Greg Colby. “She never gave up. That whole race she was right there and did not give up. That’s a huge confidence builder.”

He also praised Kristine Valdez for her effort.

“She swam her lifetime best out there,” Colby said. “She didn’t have very good prelim swims, but she came back and swam great.”

Valdez and India Wade kept the pace for the Spartans on the first two legs, but the Wolverines slowly pulled away and were up by half a body length.

On the third leg of the relay, Isabel Williams pulled herself closer to Stephanie Frederick, then moved slightly ahead of her when Frederick mistimed her flip, costing her precious seconds.

Colby agreed.

“Something happened on the third turn to her, because not only did she not get off the wall, she popped right up to take a breath,” he said. “Definitely Isabel took advantage of that.

“Not that it was a conscious decision – she was just charging – but it did set up the last leg.”

Williams said she just wanted to keep things steady.

“I was mainly just thinking, ‘Just get in there for Keziah,’” she said. “It was a roller coaster of a day.”

The junior won her third district title of her prep career in the 100 butterfly, showing off a perfect form en route to a time of 57.76.

Williams missed setting a new district record by 1.15 seconds.

“It was good,” she said of her win. “It happened my freshman year (in the 100 fly), then last year was a little learning experience for me, but it was good to come back my junior year (and win.)”

Williams just missed another title in the 100 backstroke, losing to Holy Names’ Lauren Hall by .86 hundredths of a second with times of 59.81 and 58.95, respectively.

She won the same event as a freshman.

Beall finished second to Skyline’s talented freshman Andie Taylor in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:57.23 and took second in the 100 freestyle with a time of 54.29 to MacLean’s 53.85.

Wade took sixth in the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:02.55 and fifth in the 100 freestyle with a time of 56.58, but both times were state qualifiers.

Tessa Griffin missed out on a district title in the 50 freestyle with her second place time of 25.42 to MacLean’s 25.03.

She won the 100 butterfly consolation final with a state qualifying time of 1:02.33.

Julie Pendleton took third in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:10.34 and sixth in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:15.56, but both times were state qualifiers.

The team of Griffin, Valdez, Pendleton and Beall also finished second to Bellevue in the 200 freestyle relay by two hundredths of a second with a time of 1:43.23.

Shelby Mann finished eleventh in the diving competition with a score of 265.55 points, just missing out on the score to qualify for state.

As a team, they finished third with 175 points, but could have had more if not for a controversial decision in the 200 IM relay.

The team of Williams, Pendleton, Wade and Griffin won the race but were disqualified when one of them left early.

Colby felt the call was wrong.

“I thought it was a bad call,” he said. “(But) they double confirmed it.

“All of us saw it before they made the call and we didn’t see anything wrong on the takeoffs. But it’s one of those procedural rules when they make the call and (once) it’s double confirmed, you can’t do anything about it.”

Even with the loss, Colby said he was confident that the team would get it done this weekend.

“I think we’re going to ride the wave,” he said. “We’re really excited, especially for the relays.

Williams agreed.

“We feel very good,” she said. “It’s a good environment this year and the girls have a great connection.

“We’re excited,” Williams continued. “I’m pumped already.”

The 3A state meet is at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way this weekend.

The preliminary events start at 5:15 p.m. on Friday, with the finals scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Saturday.