By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Sigh...
One little thing went wrong, for Kennedy Catholic, in the 10th event of the district meet, as its star swimmer, senior captain Tommy Thach, made a small mistake in the 100-yard backstroke final that disqualified him and erased much needed points for his team. The Lancers' lost, 206-203, to winner Hazen, at the 3A West Central District meet at the Hazen Pool Saturday.

"Unfortunate race," said Tommy Thach, who will go to Texas Christian University on a full-ride swimming scholarship this fall. "I had a problem staying straight in my lane and, when I flipped on the turn, going underwater, I went into another swimmer's lane, and I can't do that."

Keep in mind, Thach has been "iron man" all four years swimming in high school as a Lancer, which means he's qualified for state in all the events. Thach, also, swims outside of high school, year-round club stuff, and additionally swims in USA Swimming and has swam the 200-yard freestyle in the Olympic Trials.

Currently, he's three-tenths of a second off the 200-yard freestyle qualifying time for the trials.

So, Thach is strong among many great swimmers in the state of Washington, and, beyond. And, maybe, he will, soon, coming right up, at state, be strongest. That prestigious feat is not out of the question for Thach, if he and his team can make up for this little glitch at districts.

But Thach made a mistake and explained a fair reason why he was disqualified in the 100 back.

"In high school, it's not legal to go into another swimmer's lane, but, it is legal in USA Swimming," said Thach, who showed humility, for just admitting that he made a mistake and was disqualified from having would have taken first place in the event, not to mention, the error cost his team, big points, in the end team score tally. "I made a mistake."

If no disqualification for Thach in the 100 back, the Lancers would have won the district meet by 13 points.
But, that's that, and it was a costly 'that,' but, no need to belabor the point any further -- and, to note, there were others on the Lancers, with, actually, one other swimmer, who made errors, too, that cost their team first-place points at districts.

And, regardless, the Lancers swam great at districts, upping their past recent result, too.

"We were fourth at districts last year, so, I'm happy with a second place," said Marley Prothero, who coaches alongside her brother, Sean, head coach on the Lancers. "I am proud of the guys despite they might be bummed for second place. They swam hard and that's all I can ask for as a coach."

After losing to the Highlanders--school and pool in the Renton Highlands area -- during the Seamount League season, of dual meets, the Lancers got them back in the postseason league meet, Lancers winning it. But, then, at districts, a two-day meet, actually, with preliminary races on Friday that qualified swimmers into Saturday's finals, the unfortunate happened. Ultimately, though, districts is just a nice one to win. Districts just gives swimmers, who have not yet made the state qualifying time cut, one last chance to, still, get into that biggest of high school swimming meets that happens this coming weekend, on Feb. 20-21, at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

After the final team scores at the end of the district meet were read, the Lancers were looking somewhat stunned.

And the way the Lancers dominated relays, two firsts in them and high places in other races, including Thach's win in the 200 free despite the disqualification in the 100 back, the Burien private school looked like they were going to win districts, from start to finish.

"I thought we had it, too," said Thach, immediately, after the meet's conclusion, having just heard his team get the second-place score.

The Lancers wondered if there was a mistake in scoring, too. So, the team scores were being re-added, again, to see if Hazen really won.

Thach, who won the 200 free in 1:49.13, and, helped two relays to first places, had said these words immediately after the meet, "The team scores are being recalculated. But, if scores end like now, we will be content with it. They might have made an error calculating scores the first time. Errors happen, mistakes.We will stick around for the end and see what happens."

But, it was official, the scores were added correctly. Second place.

But, that, really, just gives Thach and his teammates fuel for doing better next week and just for not making the mistakes again, at state, when and where they, really, matter.

Thach said, too, before the official re-totaled scores were done, "If we are second, we will have some fire for next weekend. And, we will redeem ourselves."

And, again, to note, Thach wasn't the only one who erred in a race that cost his team, as sophomore, Ian Olufson, showed humbleness, too, with admittance he made a mistake in a race, too. Actually, two mistakes, things, in races, he wish he'd done different in prelims, on Friday.

"I made a couple mistakes in the 100 an 200 free yesterday," said Olufson, noting his finishes were not as high as he would have liked which took points away from his team on day two, Saturday. He couldn't do better than seventh place on Saturday, because he got beat out of the 'A' final on Friday.

"My sleep schedule was thrown off," said Olufson. "I wasn't active enough warming up."

So, that's how that all went.

But Sean Prothero is happy with the fact that the team is sending a good bunch of swimmers to state. Some years, three, four, maybe, five, go on to state, for the Lancers, but, this season, the Lancers send eight: Dylan Jergens, Kyle Pierce, Jack Fenster, Jeff Kasahara, Anthony Tran, Thach, Olufson, and, a freshman diver, Aidan Kormanik, who took eighth at the district swim meet at a separate location from the swimming portion.

"We are going to have a good contingent at state," said Prothero.

Added Thach, of his take on this meet, "The relays were phenomenal, surprised with the times we did. An, the underclassmen, not just freshman, really stepped up. I've seen a lot of improvement from them throughout the season."

And, some others not yet mentioned doing well at this district meet, include, junior, Jeff Kasahara, who took fifth place in the 100-yard butterfly, going a 58.22, improving in time from all other times thus far.
"My best time this year," said Kasahara, who swam a little later in the day to a fourth place finish in the 100-yard breaststroke, at districts, too, a 1:04.81, and, teammate Tran was sixth in that event, 1:08.70. "I moved up a place, I was seeded sixth, and got fifth."

And, it's a state time for Kasahara, and, Tran, too, regardless of making a state-cut time at districts, this year, in 3A swimming, everyone at the district meet allocates into state automatically if they are finish in the top six places. Fenster, fourth, Jergens, sixth, both make it to state, as well. And, Olufson, who, best he could finish was seventh because of yesterday's tough swims for him, as previously explained, though, made it on state-cut qualification.

The 200 medley relay -- Olufson, Kasahara, Thach, Fenster -- kicked off the district meet and the Lancers swam it with just enough strength for victory, getting into the wall at 1:39.06, ahead of Hazen, who was in at 1:39.76. So, that closeness set the tone for the meet, with the Lancers leading through most of the meet, of the 12 events, just not leading at the very end, unfortunately.

"We really want to win all the relays at state," said Thach, who puts a challenge out there for his team in 200-free relay to move up a couple more spots since they took third place in it. Jurgens, Pierce, Kasahara, and, Tran, were on it at districts.

And, for the 400 free relay, it's last, but, not least, spoken of, because the Lancers foursome of Olufson, Fenster, Jurgens, Thach, swam to first place in that last event of districts, going a 3:16.59, a full two seconds faster than second place, 3:18.66.

So, a good meet for the Lancers, not great, but, 'great' is much better achieved at state, as has already been alluded. And, Marley Prothero who already put this district meet finish in nice perspective, had some words about swimmers needing to realize this next meet--state--is big. And, to note, Prothero took first at state in 4A, for Kentwood, in 2007 and 2008, winning the 200 IM both those years. She, also, swam on scholarship at UNLV and in the Olympic Trials, as well.

And, when asked of some of the swimmers, this is what she said.

"Just atmosphere, for Jack (Fenster), coming into state as a freshman," said Prothero. "Going to have nerves."

And, of Jurgens, she said, "I think, he will ride this wave he's on. He doesn't swim club. He's a transfer from O'Dea a couple year's ago, so, couldn't swim varsity last year for us and that was too bad. He would have scored points for us last year. But, hopefully, he finishes off on a good note."

And, one more, Pierce, was said things about, when asked.

"Kyle, he's also a senior, a captain on the team," said Prothero. "He only swam the 100 free today, but he went a lifetime best. He works really hard. He was on the 200 free relay team that qualified for state."

What about state? Can the Lancers say like that ole Gospel hymn, 'I've been redeemed,' or this unfortunate finish to districts? And, to mention, the girls' Lancers swim team has won state, at least, a time or two more than boys in high school swimming, there. So, there's, perhaps, that fire in these guys, too.

But, win state, can this group of Lancers boys find redemption in that way?

"Omigosh,' said Marley Prothero. "Bellevue is insane. We are hoping for a top five finish. Definitely, a possibility."

And, then, to Sean, Marley's big brother, what would he want to say about things in conclusion of districts, as he was walking out the door with his sister, and, mom, who attended the meet, too, to watch her kids, and, the Lancers' swimmers..

"I don't think I need to say anything else from what's already been said," said Sean Prothero, smiling. "I'm sure Marley said everything well."