First-year head coach Perry Dolan knew that all the hours of training, every early-morning practice the team had endured so far in the 2011 Inglemoor High girls’ swim season was leading up to Saturday’s state swim finals at King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.

His Vikings were healthy and primed to place high among the 41 competing schools at the 4A level, something the team had not done since sharing the state title with Garfield in 2007.

Inglemoor qualified swimmers in the final or consolation heats in four out of the six freestyle events, and superstar sophomore Sage Speak dominated the 100 breaststroke to earn her first 4A state title.

In the end, the Vikings placed sixth at the meet with 111 team points, narrowly edging out fellow Kingco competitor Newport with 110.

Ultra-deep and talented Skyline ran away with the title, scoring 202 points.

“All the way through, the buildup to this moment was incredible for all of the girls on the whole team, all 31 of them,” Dolan said. “As we came closer and closer, the girls have worked real hard. It was absolutely beautiful. They’re a team, and that’s what it’s all about.”

GOLDEN GIRL

Last year, as a freshman, Sage Speak had the swim of her life in the 100 breaststroke finals. She crushed her personal best, but it happened that Redmond senior Heather Harper, and Eisenhower standout Emilie Pleger, were just a tad faster.

With both having graduated last spring and no new challengers, Speak’s breaststroke title was in her hands.

Speak, who swims for WAVE Aquatics, swam an All-American consolation time of 1 minute, 4.72 seconds in the preliminaries, with her nearest competitor more than two full seconds behind.

In the finals, the 10th-grader led by about a second at the halfway point, and brought it home, winning the title in 1:04.31, a new school record and personal best swim.

“Just go in and swim, I didn’t want to be (over) confident,” said the soft-spoken Speak on her race plan. “It feels good. I had my (win), and it was like, ‘Oh, I have the relay now.’ It really hasn’t settled in yet.”

Dolan, who has marveled at Speak’s ability all season, said that the sophomore’s work ethic and drive paid off handsomely.

“Sage is a real trooper, she works hard to make it work,” he said. “She’s proven that in what she did today. She’s got tremendous experience, tremendous coaching on our club team WAVE Aquatics, and she’s helped a lot of the other girls keep up their experience and work hard to be here.”

Also rising to the challenge in the breaststroke was fellow sophomore Kayla Roberson, who barely snuck in to the final heat, qualifying in eighth place, but vaulted all the way up to third after clocking a personal-best 1:07.81 in the finals.

“Every meet these kids came in, they dropped time,” Dolan lauded. “Kayla went from eighth all the way down to third, which is phenomenal.”

Roberson also placed sixth in the 200 free, in 1:56.29.

ROCKIN’ RELAYS

At the state swim meet, the relay races are where a majority of the scoring takes place, as all team points are doubled.

Knowing they needed solid swims to climb into the top spots of the standings, the Vikings answered the call.

It started in the 200 freestyle sprint relay, where seniors Leann Yee and Marine Behr teamed up with Roberson and Speak to place fifth in 1:41.19.

In the 400 free relay, the Vikings qualified for the championship heat by the slimmest of margins, just .16 of a second, and like Roberson did in the breaststroke, the team capitalized on its good fortune.

The Vikings, swimming their final race of the season, leapfrogged Kentridge, Cascade and Newport, all teams that had beaten them in the prelims, to place fifth and seal their sixth-place finish.

“We were really ready to work hard and go fast,  because it was our last meet,” said Yee, who has been on varsity all four years. “I think we just really wanted to do well.”

Roberson added that everyone knew the final relay was their last time swimming together in high school, so they went “all-out on it,” and Speak said that having come that far as a team, they had to finish the job.

“We just knew we were doing it for each other,” she explained. “We couldn’t let each other down.”

After the meet, as the team was ready to head to a nearby Red Robin to celebrate their state meet success, Dolan was appreciative of his team’s accomplishments in his first year at the helm, and credited the team’s upperclassmen for leading by example.

“I’ve got six girls that are seniors that are leaving us and going on to college,” Dolan said. “They’re a credit, all of them, to the whole school. I’m going to miss them.”

Inglemoor’s Sage Speak looks up at the board and discovers she has won the 2011 4A state breaststroke championship. Charles Cortes/Reporter Newspapers