By Jeremy Martin

Federal Way-All day Saturday the King County Aquatic Center played host to many of the state’s top athletes during the 2014 Washington Sate Boys Swimming and Diving Championships.

One of the youngest competitors on hand and the West Seattle area’s only participant, Seryozha Dahl could have easily let nerves get the best of him, however the freshman from Evergreen came up big, taking home a third place finish in the Class 2A 500 meter freestyle.

Dahl’s time of 4:58.00 bested his Friday preliminary time of 5:05.98, which put him on the 7th starting block.

“This is the best moment of my life so far,” Dahl said. “I’m super happy right now.”
Dahl also finished first overall in the 200 meter freestyle consolation championship coming in with a time of 1:52.48, outclassing his prelim time of 1:54.56.

“I was starting at a good start from my 200, I had a good time. I knew it was a good day,” Dahl said. “I just did it, and it was pretty cool.”

Parents, fans and athletes came and went throughout the day but the enthusiasm and energy each person brought to the pool remained a constant source of motivation for all the swimmers competing.

“It’s a great sensation; it’s happiness, nervousness. It’s just awesome,” Dahl said.

Dahl was just one many exceptional athletes feeding off the crowd’s energy, none more than the swimmers representing Everett’s Archbishop Murphy High School who came away with the class 2A overall team title, racking up 185 points.

Dahl’s 25 points were good enough to give Evergreen a 22nd place finish overall on the day. His third place finish in the 500 freestyle put him just behind winner Stephen Boden (4:34.81) of Archbishop Murphy, and Danny Schleh (4:57.48) of Anecortes.

Rounding out the top five in total team points were Steilacoom (172), Hockinson (161), Squalicum (130.5) and Yakima’s West Valley High School (117)

Complete team, and meet statistics can be found at www.wiaa.com