High School Sports

You'd think it would get old.

Mercer Island comes to the KingCo boys swimming championships each winter, and for a decade now the Islanders have left the meet with the team title.

Saturday at the University of Washington, Mercer Island extended its streak to double digits with a 10th consecutive championship.

The Islanders did it a little differently than a year ago, when they had no individual champions but swept all three relays. This time, they got a title from Marco Signorelli in the 100-yard freestyle (48.5 seconds), but lost one of the relays.

The result was the same — Mercer Island atop the KingCo, 747 points to 422 over runner-up Newport.

"It never gets old," Islanders coach Chauntelle Johnson said. "Every year is a different group of guys."

Mercer Island's numbers again were the difference.

"This meet is rewarding that," Issaquah coach Laura Halter said. "Their depth is going to carry them. We don't compete against them during the year (Issaquah is a 4A school, Mercer Island 3A). We get here, we're just kind of throwing our arms up in the air."

That didn't mean Issaquah didn't have a productive day.

Brian Ruggles anchored the winning 200 medley relay for Issaquah, then came back and took the 200 IM in 2:00.99.

"It's a little bit surprising," Halter said. "Brian is not much an IMer. He's good, but it's not what he loves."

Ruggles will not swim the IM next weekend at districts, when swimmers must compete in the two individual events they intend to swim at the Feb. 17-18 state meet.

That is not so at the league meet.

"It's the philosophy I have," Halter said. "If you already are qualified for state in the events you really want at state, try something different here because you are already going to have to swim those other events four more times."

Johnson allowed her swimmers to decide what events they wanted to swim in the league meet.

"It works to our advantage in some of our events, and not so much in others," she said. "But this is such a great meet because it's different from every other league. It's so big (with 4A, 3A and 2A swimming together). It's like an all-star meet for our area."

Eastlake sophomore Edward Kim swam just one individual event, but participated in all three relays.

"Normally, it doesn't really matter to me," said Kim, who made the most of his event — the 100 butterfly — by setting a meet record of 51.73 seconds. "My coach wanted to get all our relays qualified for state, and felt that I was an important part of those relays."

Kim won Class 4A state titles in the 50 and 100 free as a freshman last year. He broke his own KingCo meet mark on Saturday, but wasn't satisfied.

"Getting faster is just a product of hard work," Kim said. "I feel like I could have gone faster. My walls were a little off, so I am a little disappointed."

Eastlake qualified all three relays with Kim in the lineup.

A week from now at districts the heat sheets will look very different as swimmers set themselves up for state runs.

"This time of year, it's all about racing, and not so much times," Johnson said. "It's all about how you swim within your heat. And it's getting into the habit of racing two days in a row. It's absolutely important. Actually, this weekend sets us up better than the district weekend."

The Islanders will go after their seventh consecutive Class 3A state title Feb. 17-18 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Notes

• Liberty's Logan Briggs was the only double individual winner, taking the 200 free (1:43.15) and 100 back (54.07, a meet record, breaking the mark of 54.40 in 2009 by Bellevue's Andrew Mooers).

• Skyline's Max Levy won the diving competition at Juanita earlier on Saturday.

• Newport's Eric Bartelson was named KingCo 4A coach of the year. Liberty's Chris Daughters won the 3A award. Sportsmanship awards went to Issaquah (4A) and Sammamish (3A).

• Mercer Island won the 400 free relay in a meet record 3:16.03, eclipsing the Islanders' 2011 mark of 3:17.75.