Federal Way, Decatur, Thomas Jefferson and Todd Beamer all at least got one of their swimmers into the second day of competition (finals or consolation finals). Two of rhe schools --TJ and Beamer -- finished high as teams in third and fifth, respectively, at the prestigious WIAA 4A girls swimming and diving state championship meet at the Weyerhaueser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way Nov. 12-14.

TJ had the most smiles afterward as a team, since finishing third meant they got on the podium where first through fourth places get their pictures taken and a trophy to go with it.

"One spot out," said Beamer coach Malcolm Neeley of being fifth.

But his wife Wendy, who coaches the TJ team, helped the Raiders to get their highest finish in some time, maybe forever time. The TJ boys won state under her back in mid-2000s and this girls team is young so they will be back again next season ready to do some more damage to the 4A ranks.

“I’m happy for the girls of TJ and us,” Malcom said. “Two good finishes."

Really, if swimmers’ placements are combined there was no better 1-2 punch than that of TJ and Beamer, who had two swimmers that anchored a very impressive showing for their schools -- Amber Cratsenberg and Rachel Kim.

Cratsenberg, just a sophomore, just missed being Swimmer of the Meet. Only a senior swimmer from Skyline (Sammamish Plateau) who set a fastest 4A time ever in the 200 free (1:46.55), and a second fastest 4A time ever in the 500 free, could stop her from taking that coveted award.

Cratsenberg took home first places at state in the 50 free (23.87) and the 100 free (51.57) on finals day.

Yes, the two competed in different races so a head-to-head competition would have been a good way to decide things, but neither went in the other's domain.

"Oh that would have been a good race," said Cratsenberg. "I don't really race against her."

Time will tell, literally, just how good Cratsenberg can get. Megan Oesting of Mercer Island holds the fastest meet time in the 50 free, 23.17, set in 1990, so Cratsenberg is close to that.

Cratsenberg, before the start of the fastest race at state – the 50 free -- showed something of a scowl on her face and looked to be talking to herself. What was she doing?

"Oh," said Cratsenberg, smiling, laughing a little, "I was just kind of focused, get in my little groove. People say I look intimidating."

She also looks successful.

After winning the 50 free in event 4, Cratsenberg still was racing in the 100 free in the 8th event at state. Did winning the 50 do anything to calm her nerves before the start of the 100 a little later in the meet?

"Made it easier," said Cratsenberg. "It made me see I can go fast and win."

In a word, “confidence.” that's what it gave Cratsenberg, who started out her swimming days at Marine Hills in the Seattle Summer Swim League. She did take off last summer to focus directly, solely on club swimming and her VAST year-round team. But the Marine Hills Fish and the Tree team is something she missed last summer.

"Oh yeah, I miss Marine Hills," said Cratsenberg of the MH team coached by Wendy Neeley in the summer. "It gave me my start. Wendy gets me motivated and keeps me positive, especially when I feel down with my swimming.”

The whole TJ team was excited, like Janice Hunyh who swam with Cratsenberg and Savannah Coe (sixth 200 individual medley, fifth 100 breaststroke), and Michelle Hogan in the 200 medley for fifth place in event 1. Then a little later for TJ, event 9, the foursome of Cratsenberg, Bailey Warrior, Michelle Hogan and Coe swam to fourth place and were seeded sixth.

Those relay efforts there, along with Coe's two placements and, of course, Cratsenberg's two wins, led to Huynh coming up to Cratsenberg after the meet was over to let her know that they still had one more thing to do.

"We might have to go up again," said Huynh, pausing excitedly talking to Cratsenberg after she was the first one from her team to look on the scoreboard and realize whose name was up there high. "Cuz we are going to get a trophy, fourth."

Cratsenberg immediately said something like ‘wow.’ That makes sense because earlier in the meet she was hoping her team could get top six and she said she was "excited to see how it all turns out."

Beamer was fifth, after having taken second at the West Central District meet a couple weeks earlier while TJ finished sixth, so the placements were more or less flip-flopped. For Beamer, no one showed better than diminuitive but strong smiling junior Rachel Kim, who took second in the 200 IM (2:05.12) and third in the 100 backstroke (56.88) at state. Kim also helped her Beamer team, along with teammates Michelle Rah, Kelly Erickson and Lesley Elijah, taking third in the 200 medley relay (1:51.79) and fourth in the 200 free relay (1:41.73).

The races Kim swam in were the ones she swam last year, too, and she swam them both with the same 'finals' achievement. The only girl to beat her in the 200 IM was Katie Kinnear, a freshman from Eastlake and, come to think of it, with Kinnear the only one besides Taylor and Cratsenberg winning two races at state (100 fly and 200 IM), she too could have been right in there for Swimmer of the Meet balloting.

But back to Kim's race against her, a loss by close to three seconds to Kinnear's 2:02.53 sat just fine with Kim, who swims for the King Aquatics year-round club team.

"I always race her," said Kim. 'It's like whatever. I don't really see her a lot."

One thing favoring Kim is her seed time coming into state was 2:08.88 in the 200 IM while Kinnear's was 2:04.82. So, depending on how one looks at it, Kim shows more potential dropping close to four seconds from her district time to her state finals time while Kinnear only dropped a little over two seconds.

Another way to look at the strong finish for TJ is that not just the swimmers helped their point total get so high as to make them one of the trophy four, so to speak. Divers helped too!

TJ sophomore Madison Kellar, who only took up diving this year, finished sixth with 326.90 points and teammate Monica Church, a freshman, took 15th with 275.55 points.

That's a credit to these two swimmers to get so far so quickly in this acrobatic water sport, but it's also a tribute of success for their first-year coach, Kelly Robertson.

"Monica was out with an ear infection for 10 days and just came back," said Robertson. "She dove great. Her and her little sister (Shelby) will be back."

Monica and Shelby Church are twins, daughters of Mike Church, coach of the playoff Raiders baseball team last May. So that's good coaching blood in them and they are listening to a good one in Robertson, who took home the silver in the 1984 Summer Olympics and the bronze in 1988.

And Kellar?

"She just started diving a couple months ago," said Robertson. "She did really well. She was consistent. And, in this sport, that is the name of the game. If you can '6' them (the judges) to death, and, '5' them to death, you're going to do pretty good."

For Beamer, Elizabeth Wiley did just fine, taking ninth place overall with 319.55.

"Liz was a little too amped,' said Robertson of Wiley's state showing, with Robertson being the diving coach for all four Federal Way schools. "She had a little too much energy. But she did great."

Got to state. That is great.

And, she's going to do better next year as she got a nudge on the arm from her coach, Malcolm Neely, afterward.

"Next year on the podium (top eighth)," he said. "Moving up."

He also said, '”Thanks for the points. Good job.”

Angela Hanson, for Decatur, a senior, took seventh overall, 325.30, continuing her good consistency at state. She's been in the top eight the last three years there.

"I've seen her dive better, but she was solid, no major flaws," said Robertson of Hanson's diving, and, to note, each girl does eight dives (24 girls that qualified) on day one which was Thursday Nov. 12. Then the top 16 move on to the final round Saturday to do a final three dives. So 11 total.

Speaking of numbers, points rather, Wiley's points...

Wiley's points were important, all nine of them, as Beamer took fifth place with 126 points. Behind them was Kentlake with 117 and Jackson (Everett), 116. So pretty dicey between fifth and eighth places and points did help Beamer in diving.

Also, Church and Kellar's points were important. The Raiders finished in third with 140 points as a team at state but weren't far from fourth place Issaquah, who got 131 points. Kellar's sixth place earned her team 13 points and Church added in two. So that was 15 big points there to keep the one's below, including rival Beamer at bay.

The Eagles of Federal Way got their best individual effort from Kaia Barth, a junior who took third in the consolation finals of the 50 free (25.14) and helped her team along with Dalyn Wingard, Keely Craig, Kayla Ramey getting sixth place in the consolation final of the 200 free relay. They were breaking their own best time all season and followed it up nicely with one more 'best' going out this season.

"Our goal was to make it to state and come back on Saturday," said Carla Boone, who co-coaches with Tammy Taylor.

State was good for your relayers?

"It was fabulous, with the fastest splits of the year," said Taylor.

This team is young, only one senior on it, so it could and should be very competitive next year.

"Absolutely," said Boone.

"They are great girls, and that makes it very easy to coach them," said Taylor.

Kelsey Crowder took second in the consolation final of the 200 IM with a 2:10.95 time and she's a junior so she will be back with coach Russ Neal next year. And Kelly Erickson of Beamer took third in the 100 butterfly consolation final in 58.66. She was also sixth in the 50 free (24.79).

"Everyone had faster times (at state)," said Malcolm Neely. "Kelly (Erickson) ended up with best times. The first of the year she was not a 50 freestyler but ended up that way. Rachel (Kim) had fantastic times, both school records. She broke her own records.”