Skyline gets winning kick at Sea-King 4A district swim meet

Although Skyline swimmer Katie Kinnear didn't met her own strict standards for success, it was far from a lost weekend.

Kinnear, a junior transfer from Eastlake who won the 100-yard butterfly and the 200 individual medley in Class 4A for the Wolves as a sophomore, would have liked to go faster Saturday in preparation for next weekend's state meet.

Still, the competition saw Kinnear was plenty fast.

Kinnear factored into four victories, including breaking her own meet record in 23.16 seconds in the 50 freestyle, to lead Skyline to the team title at the Sea-King 4A district meet at Husky Pool.

"Honestly, I was hoping to be a little faster, because I've been fast this season already, like in the middle of the season," said Kinnear, whose family moved from the Eastlake service area to Skyline before her junior season. "I'm a little disappointed, but how I do at state is all that matters."

The Spartans standout assured her team of the top spot at meet with a torrid, come-from-behind effort in 400 free relay in a personal-best 51.2 seconds for her leg. The Spartans finished in 3:38.56.

To kick off the day, Kinnear swam a personal-best 26.41 on the backstroke leg of the 200 medley relay as the Spartans won in 1:50.63. She also took first place in the 100 butterfly in an automatic All-American time of 55.33.

The Spartans, who needed a strong finish in the 400 free relay to secure the team crown, trailed Ballard and Newport until Kinnear's explosive final kick.

"I'm not sure how the points laid out, but it was going to be super close," said Kinnear, whose Skyline squad won the team race 257-230.5 over Newport, thanks to the relay. "I knew we seeded six seconds ahead, so we thought it would be pretty easy to win. When I saw how close it was, I knew I had to step it up and do a really good split and help our team out.

"Just the idea of the points (in the team race) helped focus me."

Notes

• Skyline, which won the Class 4A team title in 2009, goes for a repeat Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

• Ballard senior Annemarie Thayer captured both the 200 IM in 2:06.33 and 100 backstroke in an All-American consideration time of 56.38.

• Garfield senior Fiona Majeau took top honors in the 200 and 500 free races. She finished in an All-American consideration clocking of 1:51.91 in the 200 and 5:03.76 in the 500.

• Redmond senior Heather Harper won the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.39. In Friday's preliminaries, she had established a new meet mark with a time of 1:04.83.