LeValley makes, breaks 500-yard school records

MARYSVILLE The Tomahawk swim and dive team came in second at the 2007 Wesco District championships last weekend, edging Shorewood High School by just half a point.
Longtime swimming powerhouse Snohomish swept the field with a commanding lead, almost doubling the score of the next two competitors. Snohomish had 639 points, M-PHS placed with 376, and Shorewood took show with 375.5 points.
Several M-P swimmers put in standout performances, including Trevor LeValley, who set a school record in the preliminaries and then broke it in the finals. The sophomore swam the 500-yard freestyle in 4:52.41 for first place, and came in third in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:02.83.
Others swimmers going to state competition include John Henninger, who placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke. The M-P 200-yard medley team came in second place behind Snohomish with a time of 1:43.97. The Snohomish team was comprised of one senior and three juniors while the M-P team had three sophomores and one junior, Gabe Lopez, LeValley, Brody Coleman and Henninger.
Scott Knowles has coached the MP team for 26 years and was proud of the effort his team made, saying the recent and rapid improvement of several dark horses put the team in the money. Snohomish was last years state champion, so nobody expected to knock them off but MP definitely beat the spread.
I think that we beat the expectations that we had going in, Knowles said. We were hoping to maybe get in the top five because we had been beaten by a few of those teams that we finally got by at the end, like Shorewood and Kamiak.
The stakes were reflected in the half-point difference between second and third places, and the MP success at the meet was a convergence of several forces, with hard work as the fulcrum.
If one of our guys placed one place lower, just one place, we would have ended up in third. So it was a real good effort. It was really just a nice team effort by everybody that was out there.
The dramatic improvement of several players brought the team up from a potential also-ran to the winners circle, according to Knowles. He cited sophomore Brody Coleman who dropped 12 seconds off his time in the 500-yard freestyle.
Thats a hole in one, Knowles laughed. It was a great, great swim.
Colin Krieger was a guy who snuck into the meet, dropping six seconds off his 100-yard breaststroke just to make the tourney and then he shaved another three seconds at the competition. Kreiger came in 16th with a time of 1:10.74., and that could have pushed the Tommies over the top.
A guy that shouldnt have been there made the difference for us, Knowles said.
The huge lead by Snohomish – 239 points – could be attributed to a shift in scoring. Last year only the top 12 swimmers earned points, this year the top 18 performers did. First place was worth 16 points last year and 24 this year.
Its kind of score inflation, I guess, Knowles shrugged. The spread is definitely significant, but in years past it may not have been as dominant.
He was not slighting Snohomish for their victory, because that is one sport they specialize in and they had a strong field of returning athletes this year and they work hard for their success. They have every reason to repeat as this years state champion this weekend at the King County Aquatics Center.
They are the dominant team in the district, he acknowledged. When those guys are out there swimming thats all that they do.
Team captain Andrew Hodgins was disappointed in his performance, dropping a whole second in the 200-yard freestyle after four years of competition. He came in 17th with 2:05.81. While he said he was just happy to make the finals, Hodgins said LeValleys searing performance pumped up his teammates.
It was real cool, it felt good, said Hodgins. He had a really great race. Everyones proud of him.
Knowles emphasized the ensemble performance the razor-thin margin, helped by some recently improved players. Gabe Lopez didnt have much rest, and frosh Oliver Durand put in an outstanding effort.
It was a great performance. We really kind of set it up with some real nice prelims in which the guys who had tapered and rested for districts, everyone of those guys dropped their times. So that fact that they all hit their best times, that doesnt happen very often.
MP divers also took second place, with Taylor Gibson finishing at 346 points, behind Snohomishs Brandon Kilpatrick, with 367.5. Ben Wilcox scored 258.1 points, good for eighth place, and Andrew Wilcox was 12th with 216.4, and Jarin Troxel placed 15th with 180.9. MP had four divers in the enlarged scoring pool, but Snohomish trio were all in the top ten.