The Ballard High School girls swim team raced their way to a fifth place finish overall in the 4A state swim championships Nov. 13-15 after placing second overall, one-point behind first-place Garfield, in districts one week earlier.

Ballard assistant coach Leo Jaeger said it was great to finish fifth at state and all the Ballard swimmers performed to expectations or better in a tough competition.

"This year's state was amazingly fast," Jaeger said. "There were four state records that were broken."

Annemarie Thayer set the pace and a state record for Ballard in the 100 meter backstroke with a time of 53.95 seconds (her record was broken hours later in the 3A championships). She also finished third in the 200 meter individual medley with a time of 2:04.12. Both are All-American times.

"These girls were not just eclipsing records, they were crushing them," Jaeger said. "Annemarie Thayer knocked two full seconds off in the 100 back. It was phenomenal."

Briana Meyer had a strong showing as well, placing fourth in the 200 meter free and fifth in the 400 meter free.

The Ballard relay team of Thayer, Meyer, Katie Jo Burkland and Gailyn Portelance came in fifth in the 200 meter free relay and, with Dylan Miller in place of Portelance, finished fourth in the 400 meter free relay.