It won't be long now before there's a verdict...Can Thomas Jefferson sophomore Amber Cratsenberg reel in the Swimmer Of The Meet honor in two weeks (Nov. 12-14) at the 4A state swimming and diving championships for her school, coached by Wendy Neely?

And can Todd Beamer junior Rachel Kim provide a threat to the Raider stars' hopes of being Swimmer Of The Meet, or Kentlake's Chelsea Bailey?

And after Beamer beat TJ second place to sixth in team scores of the recent West Central District district meet held Saturday, Oct. 31 at the Rogers pool -- can Neely's husband and Beamer swim coach Malcolm Neely, beat his wife for best local school placement at state at the King County Weyerhaueser Acquatic Center in Federal Way this year?

Questions, questions, questions, all to come with answers soon enough.

For now, the good finishes of Cratsenberg (1st in 100 freestyle, 2nd 50 free), and Kim (1st 200 Individual Medley, 2nd 100 backstroke, on winning 200 medley Beamer relay and 2nd 200 free relay) at the WCD meet take center stage.

Beamer finished third overall with 140 points at districts while TJ finished sixth (109). Federal Way ninth (62) and Decatur 12th out of the 24 schools at district.

So second place last year, third this, for Malcolm Neely, the second year Beamer coach.

"They did really well," said Neely of his swimmers, who won the South Puget Sound League (North and South Divisions) meet the week prior to districts.

Best from Beamer at districts was Rachel Kim, who won the 200 Individual Medle in 2:08.88 and participated on two relays doing quite well, a first for the 200 medley relay, with teammates Michelle Rah, Kelly Erickson and Lesley Elijah going a 1:53.96. And, in the 200 free relay, Kim, Erickson, Rah and Katie Cramer went a 1:43.37 for second.

"She got her best time of the season," said Neely of Kim. "That's good and the backstroke is good for her, too."

Speaking of a second place overall finish, that could improve for the Titans as Jessica Soria was missing from this meet, trying to get eligible. If she gets herself ready for state and that is going to add more depth to the already good relays (Soria cannot participate in individual events).

"She can compete in relays," said Neely. "She is still eligible that way. She has to get her grade up, has to work with the AD, her teacher and get her work done. Hopefully she can come back."

So, Beamer is good, but so is the other Neely team -- Wendy’s TJ squad.

She's coached the boys team to the 4A state title back in 2004-05 season not so long ago and she has some solid swimmers out there in the water, starting with Cratsenberg.

Cratsenberg won the 100 free (52.80) over Stadium's Felicity Cann, a freshman Tiger.

"She's really good. She swims for king with Chelsea (Bailey)."

So who is Cratsenberg’s chief competition for swimmer of the meet?

"I would definitely say Chelsea Bailey," said Cratsenberg, who was a top five finisher in the finals of both the 50 free (2nd) and 100 free (4th) last year at state.

What about Kim? She won't directly compete in a same event as you, like Bailey, but she's got a shot if she can somehow be a part of two relay firsts and win her bread and butter, the 200 IM?

"She's so fast," said Cratsenberg. "She's a good friend of mine."

Of both, Cratsenberg, who swims for the VAST club team while Bailey and Kim swim for King Aquatics, said...

"I like swimming against them both. They make it fun for everybody," said Cratsenberg. "And they make me go faster."

On this day of the district meet in the 50 free, there was only one person ahead of Cratsenberg blazing a straight-arrow path ferociously through her lane for this shortest of race distances in high school swimming events. That person was Bailey.

So would it be big if Cratsenberg can outreach Bailey at the wire of the 50 free and likely hold off a hard-charging, improving Cann in the 100 free. Cann also swims for Twin Lakes in the summer swim league.

"Huge," said Neeley.

Cratsenberg looks forward to racing Bailey at state?

"Oh yeah," said Cratsenberg.

She a friend or a nemesis?

"Definitely, friend," said Cratsenberg. "Chelsea is so nice. I enjoy racing against her."

If Cratsenberg does that for her two races at state the only person who could stop her is Kim, who will have the added benefit of potentially being on two winning Beamer relays in addition to only chasing Bailey in the 100 back final at districts. Beat her in that and high relay finishes will give Kim a shoo-in swimmer of the meet honor likely. But Bailey beat Kim by three seconds (55.75 to 58.90) in the 100 back final at districts so. Winning two races seems a lot more likely for Cratsenberg than Kim.

"She (Amber) could easily win her events, or, not," said Neely. "It's such a gamble to predict. She has the talent to do that."

Should be a bit tense for that prestigious yearly award given to the best swimmer in all the 4A Washington land.

Savannah Coe swims for TJ and she is someone who is not too far from the high-finishing stroking of Cratsenberg as Coe took third in the 200 IM, just 11 hundredths of a second from getting second, which belonged to Taylor Indahl of Gig Harbor, the team that won districts. And Coe upped her effort even better in the 100 breaststroke, taking second to Indahl‘s, 1:07.86 to 1:08.71, so that's by less than a second.

Coe, Cratsenberg, Bailey Warrior and Michelle Hogan teamed for fifth in the 200 medley relay as well as swimming well enough in the consolation final of the 200 free to automatically qualify their time for state.

"We were really fired up," said Coe.

"Yeah, we were," said Hogan.

What else was good about these good relays qualifying for state?

Well, they, frankly, help Cratsenberg's election to being swimmer of the meet happen that much more successfully. The girls on Cratsenberg's relays know it too.

"We are hoping for Amber to get a banner at state," said Hogan, Warrior, Coe, altogether as Cratsenberg was off running a race at this time. They knew what they wanted, though, and a medal is what one gets for winning a race at state. But a banner, well, that's for being swimmer of the meet.

Wendy Neely was happy for her team's sixth place finish that goes against Gig Harbor with a lot more swimmers giving them so much more depth for their total.

Something like 10-15, maybe even 20 swimmers, get points for Gig Harbor compared to six plus two divers for TJ.

"I would guess we are the smallest team in the top 10," said Wendy Neely.

Other swimmers at districts who did well included Decatur's Kelsey Crowder, who was fourth in the 200 IM and third in the 100 back.

Then there was Erickson, individually for Beamer, getting a fifth in the 50 free (25.04) and second in the 100 butterfly (59.60). Teammate Rah was fourth in 1.01.53 for the Titans.

For Federal Way, the relay team of Keely Craig, Kayla Ramey, Dalynn Wingard, and, Kaia Barth finished fourth in the final of 400 free relay and will go to state in it. They swam a 3:51, which is a time how much faster than their best this season?

"Three seconds," they all said, smiling.

Improve at that clip some more and a sweet final eight finish could be theirs for the taking. For much of the race -- at least half of it -- the Eagles held first place. Then swimmers like Bailey, Cann and Indahl got ahead of the Eagles’ hopes in the end. Still a great job and great improvement for that team.

Barth, individually, sped through the water for fourth in the 50 free in 24.93, not too far back of Cratsenberg. An upset winner in that event at state certainly is not out of the question. Barth just needs to keep reaching back and doing her best, which was done on this day.

"This was my best time," said Barth, who also swam in the 100 free (55.17) for fourth, showing a good consistency of placing at districts for her.

Diving was good for just about all of the Federal Way district schools. Second place overall in the event went to Decatur's Angela Hansen (332.50 points), and third to Beamer's Elizabeth Wiley (322.50). TJ got in a couple, with freshman Shelby Church fourth (301.45) and teammate Madison Kellar fifth in 299.10.