Viks place three in
100 backstroke event
Led by strong performances from juniors Craig Olynyk and Kyle Komlodi, the Inglemoor High boys swim team took fifth place out of a very tough field of 41 schools at the 4A State Swim & Dive Championships last Saturday at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
The Viks, who sent a total of six swimmers to the meet, started with a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay.
Senior Kyle Bogusz, sophomore Michael Postetter, Komlodi and Olynyk teamed up for a time of one minute and 41.19 seconds, one one-hundredth of a second off of their preliminary time.
The Vikings ended up placing eight times at state, including a high finish of second by Komlodi in the 100-yard backstroke event.
Kamiak High of Mukilteo took the championship with 222 team points, followed by Shorewood (206), Gig Harbor (201) and Richland (176).
Inglemoor was the high Kingco school at 154.5 points, edging out league rival Garfield (149).
Olynyk outrageous
One of the great stories of the meet belonged to Olynyk, who was feeling under the weather the whole week of the state championships.
After swimming the lightning-fast 50-yard freestyle preliminary heat on Friday, Olynyk looked up at the scoreboard to see that he had tied Wenatchee High’s Reid Fryover with a time of 22.45.
Exhausted due to his illness, he somehow had enough left in the tank to come back and beat Fryover in a swim-off to get into the coveted championship heat for Saturday’s 50 free finals.
Olynyk continued to impress in the 200-yard freestyle relay finals, where he swam a blistering anchor leg of 21.66 seconds to vault the Vikings from fifth to a third-place finish.
“I knew I had an individual event right after, but the relay is really what the team’s all about,” Olynyk said. “It took all the character I had to put that aside and focus on the 200 relay. I just went as fast as I could.”
The Viking senior has plenty of experience in competitive swimming as he also swims for Pacific Northwest Swimming.
“He’s strong,” Inglemoor swim coach Monica Mayes said of Olynyk. “Craig’s been doing that all season.”
Three’s company
Inglemoor also owned the 100-yard backstroke competition at the state championships, qualifying all three of the swimmers that tried out for the prelims in the championship heat.
Komlodi finished second with an All-American consideration time of 52.78, Olynyk placed fourth with 53.56, and right behind him was Bogusz in fifth, clocking 54.53.
Richland’s Cody Roberts won the event with a blistering automatic All-American time of 50.37.
“It was exciting,” said Mayes on her backstrokers’ ability to all place in the top eight. “I think they’ve been planning it and working towards it all season. They knew they could do it and they worked hard.”
The Vikings were the only team at state to place three athletes in the final heat of any event.
“It was really amazing to me that we all ended up in the top eight,” Olynyk said of his team’s feat. “I don’t know if that’s ever happened. I just hope they come out with a backstroke relay.”
And the future definitely looks bright for the young Viking squad, which only graduates three seniors: Bogusz, Luke Swenson and Ryan McGee.
“We did great, I’m very excited for them,” Mayes said. “I think finally the field (for state) is very deep. We swam well, though. I’m really pleased.”
