FEDERAL WAY — Aberdeen’s boys swimming team will finish off the 2021-22 season with two relay teams and an individual swimmer competing on the final day of the WIAA 2A Boys Swimming & Diving State Championships.

The Bobcats started the day by taking 16th overall in the 200-yard medley relay for a consolation final berth, then finished the day with a 15th place finish in the 400 free relay on Friday’s preliminary swims at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

In between the relay swims, sophomore Tyler Bates took 11th overall in the 100 backstroke to advance as Aberdeen’s only individual event qualifier.

“This was a very fast, very competitive and very intense first day of the state meet,” Aberdeen head coach Rob Burns said. “In all of our swims today, we dropped time from our seeded entries. However, so did everyone else around us and it made for an intense morning of swimming. You couldn’t ask for anything more from the boys than what they delivered.”

The team of Bates, Foster Patterson, Zach Parker and Colton Burns dropped 1.56 seconds in the medley relay and only moved up one place to 16th place and a consolation final berth.

Colton and Bates, along with Jamieson Berney and Denny Linker, dropped 0.6 seconds in the 400 free relay to take 15th overall to finish the day.

Bates had a quick turnaround from his 100 back to the 400 free relay. In the backstroke, Bates came away with a personal-best time at 59.57 — a 1.24 second time drop — to take 11th overall.

On Saturday, Aberdeen will take to the water again in the final heats of the state 2A meet.

— Submitted article