MUKILTEO — In past seasons, the Tomahawk swim team has often saved its best performances for the district prelims and run out of juice by finals trying to qualify for state.

Not so this year, said M-P coach Jaci Legore Hodgins.

With the security of a 400 freestyle relay already qualifying for state, plus state times in the 100 butterfly and 100 freestyle by freshman Kendall Vincelette, things are going to be different.

“We didn’t have that security coming into this meet in the past,” Legore Hodgins said, adding that she considers the chances that the girls had their best performance already to be “none.”

If so, the Tommies’ performance Nov. 6 at Kamiak bodes well for the finals Nov. 8. Senior Kami Girard, who has swam the backstroke at state in back-to-back years, finally got her first qualifying time of the season with a 1:02.23 to win her heat and earn the second seed heading into finals.

Younger swimmers are peaking at the right time as well, with each M-P individual medley swimmer shedding three to five seconds off their previous best times. Plus, sophomore Jewel LeValley inched closer to state qualification in the 200 freestyle.

“That redhead fire is going to kick in,” Legore Hodgins added.

Other first-day highlights included improvements by every swimmer who qualified for districts out of the junior varsity championship meet the week before. One such swimmer was freshman Geina Malavolti, who improved her backstroke and breaststroke time against Wesco competition.

Legore Hodgins also seemed hopeful about qualifying the girls in the other two relays. The 200 freestyle quartet has improved week to week and the coach called the team’s medley relay their best yet.

With the security of a relay, two swimmers and two divers already qualified for state, the coach hinted that the girls would approach finals a little differently this year.

“We’re going to change a few things,” Legore Hodgins said.

Diving preliminaries take place Nov. 7 with finals for swim and dive Nov. 8.