Being there wasn't all that counted in the case of Evergreen High School junior Emma Murray and her appearance at the Class 2A state girls swimming and diving meet Saturday.

Murray put in a solid effort to improve to 14th place on the final day of action in the 100-yard breaststroke after coming in 16th in the preliminaries to barely qualify.

She then got out of the water quickly enough to join a line formed to welcome the event top eight finalists to the pool.

Murray's time actually fell between Friday and Saturday, even though her placement moved up.
She posted a time of 1:16.96 in the preliminaries and finished with a 1:17.37 in the consolation finals for sixth place in that race and 14th overall.

Evergreen -- which teamed with Tyee and Foster on the trip around the Seamount League regular season schedule -- finished with three points on Murray's state finish for 32nd place as a team at the Washington State Activities Association/Dairy Farmers of Washington/Les Schwab Tires title sponsored event.

The state action was held at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, where the 1990 Goodwill Games swimming and diving events as well as numerous Olympic-qualifying competitions took place.