The end of the girls swimming season in Washington state is upon us as the state’s best swimmers will travel to Federal Way in the state 2A/3A/4A championship meets at the world-renowned King County Aquatic Center on Friday and Saturday.

Aberdeen will send 11 swimmers to the state 2A meet, which is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. Friday for the preliminaries and 2:15 p.m. Saturday for the championship/consolation finals.

The Bobcats have several swimmers and divers seeded well for a spot at Saturday’s finals. For AHS head coach Jan Simons, she knows it’ll come down to how they perform on Friday.

“We’ve always swam our best at state and that is our goal — our fastest swims at the biggest meets,” Simons said. “If that happens, we’ll be up there. We will have a shot at a top-three spot.”

Simons noted that the state meet will be populated with a very talented group of freshmen in all three championship meets. The Bobcats also feature a talented and experienced group of freshmen.

Annika Eisele, who qualified for the state tournament by time standard in all but one individual event, will be competing in the 100-yard butterfly and the 200 individual medley. Eisele owns the AHS school record in the 200 IM and is seeded fifth overall entering Friday’s prelims.

However, Eisele’s best event may be the 100 fly, where she is the top-seeded swimmer.

Fellow freshman Kayleia Sias will be in two individual events as well — 100 back and 100 fly. Sias is seeded seventh in the 100 back. Eisele and Sias will be key swimmers in the 200 medley relay, which is seeded fifth overall.

Senior Mari Rabung and junior Mackayla Waltee are also in the 200 medley relay with Eisele and Sias. Aberdeen will also field teams in the 200 and 400 free relays. Those relays are seeded 11th and 10th, respectively.

Also seeded in the top-12 spots for Aberdeen are Karli Heikkila, 11th in the 100 free, and Marithess Lang, 10th in diving.

“Our first order is to get as many kids into the finals as we can,” Simons said. “We are seeded really well in most of the events. We have swimmers with experience in high competition. They know how to race.”

Aberdeen’s individual swimmers:

Annika Eisele, 200 IM and 100 fly; Emily May, 200 free and 100 back; Karli Heikkila, 50 &100 free; Kayleia Sias, 100 fly and 100 back; Katie Lewis, 200 &500 free; Mari Rabung, 100 breast; Marithess Lang/Trudy Butcher/Katie Cournoyer, diving; and, Melissa May, 100 breast and 200 IM.