Led by five swimmers and three divers, Thomas Jefferson rolled through the 4A state meet with a second straight top-four girls state finish. That meant something good once again came for the Raiders after butting heads with state-best competition at the WIAA Dairy Farmers of Washington 4A swimming and diving championships at the Weyerhaueser King County Aquatics Center pool in Federal Way Saturday, Nov. 13.

Trophy time!

Only the top four teams at state get a trophy. Those so honored get to stand on the podium at the end of a state meet, get their picture taken by the press, and get to escort that hardware to their school's trophy case.

"It was all good," said Wendy Neely, TJ's coach who's volunteered time to coach Marine Hills for the Seattle Summer Swim League many years and also has the honor of coaching the 2004 TJ boys state title team.

Last year, Neely's TJ girls team took the third place trophy at state.

The points came from different places.

Amber Cratsenberg successfully defended her 100 yard freestyle title and missed out by a literal blink of the eye for first place in the 50 free. That made for a large number of points there, 20 points for the first in the 100 free and another 18 garnered in the 50 free for Cratsenberg. Teammate Savannah Coe got 11 points for her eighth place finish in the 200 individual medley and fifth place in the 100 breaststroke nabbed Coe's TJ team another 14 points. And relays like the 200 yard freestyle gave TJ another 30 points for fourth place in that final. Add in another 10 more for TJ for the 200 free relay fourth place consolation final finish.

And then diving was where the rest of the balance sheet figured.

The three divers for the Raiders getting in the top-8 finish were Madison Kellar, fifth (3.34.50), and, Monica and Shelby Church, yes, sisters, tying for seventh, fittingly enough, with 292.45 points. Add in Kelly Robertson, who coaches all four Federal Way schools' divers.

"The points came for us differently this year, but the accumulation equaled the same result," said Neely, whose husband, Malcolm, coaches the Todd Beamer Titans and that team had a real good swimmer in senior Rachel Kim as well as the top-finishing diver in senior Liz Wiley, who took third.

"Rachel's swims broke school records, again," said Malcolm.

Kim finished second place in the 200 IM and 100 backstroke, adding to her strong high school career placements at state.

The Northwestern bound Titans senior, Kim, finished fifth place in the 200 IM, and sixth in the 100 back, respectively, at state when she was a freshman. Then, as a sophomore, Kim placed fourth and fifth at state in the same two events. Then, as a junior, she was second and third (same two events) at state. Then Kim's high school state rise peaked with having just completed her state career with a couple best ever placings -- seconds.

Kim took on Ballard's Ann-Marie Thayer head-to-head in her two races, and Thayer is a Stanford-bound swimmer. And Thayer ended up nabbing the Swimmer Of The Meet honor for being the top scoring/placing individual events swimmer, including breaking the state meet record in the 200 IM.

"It was good," said Kim of her swims and swimming career, now over. "I tried to race Ann-Marie for both races and I think I did it well."

Kim swam a 2:04.31 in the 200 IM, about two seconds behind Thayer's 2:02.18 but nearly two seconds ahead of third place finisher Hannah Taylor of Marysville-Pilchuck. In the 100 back, Kim went a 56.62, which, again, was behind Thayer's a bit (53.82) but ahead of third place finisher, Kristin Ainsworth of Tahoma, by quite a bit (58.37).

So, all in all, besides Thayer, no one came close to Kim at state this year.

Kim has made the Titans proud her four years, getting her team a lot of points, including being a catalyst for team finishes her sophomore and junior season when the Titans took fourth and fifth places back-to-back at state.

"I just wanted to have fun, go get some best times and race everyone around me," said Kim.

Wiley also had fun improving from last year.

"Liz did great for us. She was ninth place at state last year and moved up to third and she broke the school record," said Malcolm Neely.

Federal Way's girls performed well, too, getting a sixth place finish in the state meet's final event, the 400 free relay, with sisters Kenna and Kayla Ramey on it along with sisters, Eva and Kaia Barth, also making up the other two legs of this foursome.

"This will be the only year of sister-sister racing," said Kayla Ramey, a senior whose sister, Kenna, made consolation finals in the 50 free (25.17), tying for fifth, and she's just a freshman.

Two sets of sisters racing in a state relay.

"You don't get that too often," said Kaia Barth, a senior Eagles swimmer doing well at state all of her four years, always making it to state for competing in finals or consolation finals. Barth was sixth in consolation finals, the 100 free in 54.92 and eighth in the 50 free (24.84) final.

These four also made the consolation finals of the 200 medley relay, making this a hard act to follow, so that's doubly good for these four young ladies.

Saving the best swimming punch for last was Cratsenberg. She was oh so close to getting two first places instead of just one. The powerful Raiders junior, who strokes through the water stronger and stronger as a race goes on, just missed the 50 free title, losing by .007 to Skyline's Katie Kinnear. Kinnear just out-touched Cratsenberg at the wall, 23.50 to 23.57.

"We were right next to each other the whole time," said Cratsenberg.

Cratsenberg matched Kinnear stroke for stroke, maybe a fraction behind, but not much. She just didn't win.

"Everything had to be perfect. I didn't win, but I still had a best time by nearly a tenth of a second," said Cratsenberg, who took second (50 free) and fourth (100 free) her freshman year, first in both freestyle races her sophomore year.

"People might think I am disappointed that I lost the 50," Cratsenberg said. "But Katie and I swim against each other in club swimming all the time. We are friends, and I swam faster than I ever have before in the 50. It was a good race. I might have caught her with a few more yards."

A 23.69 time was Cratsenberg's best mark prior to the state finals swim, so she took .008 of a second off that time. The 50 meters is the shortest distance event of the 11 swimming events at state.

So the ending was not perfect in a podium stance sense for Cratsenberg, but that's about it as she exemplifies a great attitude, which is so important in life win or lose. It's all about doing things to get better each time out, always doing your best, striving to improve.

Talking about Ann Marie Thayer, who won the Swimmer of the Meet honor for Ballard High School, Cratsenberg said, "I am happy for Ann Marie. She's a senior and she definitely deserves it," said Cratsenberg.

Tough to have lost out on a potential Swimmer of Meet honor if this would be your last high school race ever?

"Yeah, pretty sure if it was my senior year (and lost the 50 meters that close) I would have been crying," said Cratsenberg. "But me and Katie still have next year. And there should be some other good swimmers, too, like Emily Mohr (Kentridge) and Joanna Wu (Kent-Meridian) and Felicity Cann (Stadium)."

And Kim?

"Oh yeah, she's good. We don't race the same races (at state), but I love her. She's my favorite person," said Cratsenberg. "She's so funny. She makes it fun for us. All she does is crack jokes. Everyone loves her."

And are there any other swimmers that this local best swimmer would like to give some love?

"My teammates, they're amazing. I love all my teammates," said Cratsenberg, with Klara Oh turning Cratsenberg's way then and uncreasing a big smile. Oh was on two Raiders relays with Cratsenberg, along with Bailey Warrior and Savannah Coe, who took fifth place in the 100 breaststroke (1:08.80) and eighth in the 200 IM (2:12.07) .

"We have a lot of seniors, so they will be graduating," said Oh, frowning a little as she said that. "But Amber and I are not graduating, so I have one more year with her. So that is good."

Coaching helps that happen, too, like Neely, for TJ, for so many years now.

"She is so good at giving inspirational speeches, and so positive," said Cratsenberg. "She makes sure we have the best attitudes going into our races."

The 100 free was definitely not Cratsenberg's race to begin with because she was in fourth place after the first 50 meters (first time back and forth) of the race. She was nearly a second behind the lead swimmer going into the final 50 meters of the race. Then Cratsenberg turned it on, like a locomotive suddenly receiving a heap of coal, keeping her strong powerful strokes going fast in and out of the water, going, going, and going, as others' strokes became slower the final length of the race. And Cratsenberg passed them all.

Was your strategy racing the 100 free to come from behind, like a race horse that closes on all the other horses down the stretch to win?

Cratsenberg laughed.

"My club coach (Ted Rychlik of V.A.S.T. year-round swimming) told me I needed to go out in the 100 free like I was swimming a 50 free," said Cratsenberg.

And?

"That kind of didn't happen," said Cratsenberg, warbling her voice, smiling. "But I brought it together at the end."

Cratsenberg's time?

It was a 50.96. Just over a second (49.86) off the state meet record.

And, since Cratsenberg's a junior...

"I have another year to go," she said.

And she might just go all the way to that top swimming meet honor that is now Thayer's.

"That would be nice," said Cratsenberg, most humbly, as her smiling face showed.

One other mentionable at state is Decatur's Kelsey Crowder. Although the Gators are the lone Federal Way area school that was in the 3A meet because the school dropped down a classification from student numbers dwindling, Crowder took two fifths, in the 200 IM (2:11.00) and 100 back (1:00.69).

Crowder swam with a bad hand, having a brace on it.

"I just had a muscle torn," said Crowder.

She admitted it slowed her down a second or two for her races, which could have nabbed her third places, but she still swam great.

"These are my best finishes," said the Gators senior.