An incredible weekend of fast-paced swimming for the Wood River High School girls' and boys' teams ended up with a girls' state team championship Saturday at the Treasure Valley YMCA pool in Boise.
Wood River's girls completed a rare sweep of the 200 medley relay, 200 freestyle relay and 400 freestyle relay events—good for 120 points—as the 13 Wolverine girls amassed 283 points to win the first-place trophy by a wide margin.
Individual winners Amanda Harris in 50 freestyle and Racheal McGinnis in 200 freestyle added substantially to Wood River's point total. So did a second-place by Anja Sundali in the 100 butterfly.
Putting it all together, Wood River outdistanced second-place Coeur d'Alene by 70 points to win Wood River's first-ever state swimming championship since the Hailey swim team was formed by coach Brian Gallagher in 1994.
The outcome also wrapped up an undefeated season for the Wood River girls' team—eight-for-eight since the meet season started in September at the Zenergy pool at Thunder Springs north of Ketchum.
Sweeping unbeaten through meets this fall at Nampa, Pocatello, Twin Falls and Idaho Falls, Wood River put an exclamation mark on an incredible season Saturday in Boise.
Coach Gallagher, the girls and the supportive parents were ecstatic.
Gallagher said, "It was one of those moments you dream about and hope comes true one day. It was extraordinary—a pretty special day.
"Not too many teams will win all three relays. That's an exception to the rule. Last year at state, for instance, the girls were first in the 200 free relay and third in the 400 free.
"In the team standings, we've been third, fourth and fifth before at state, but we've never been able to break through to the top because we didn't have enough depth. This is the first year I've had swimmers in every year of high school."
Leading Wood River to the state championship title were two special seniors, Amanda Harris and Anja Sundali.
Juniors were Hannah McNees, McKenna Collins, Rian Ervin and Rachael Becker. Sophomores were Lacey Werley, Natalie Hague and Taylor Straley. And the freshmen were Racheal McGinnis, Esther Williams, Ashleigh Share and Megan Hayes.
Gallagher, 51 Sunday, has been coaching swimming for 33 years, since he was a student at the University of Arizona. He's been teaching strokes to local swimmers since 1978.
Special teams come along rarely, and Gallagher has been anticipating this year's championship squad since Amanda Harris was a freshman and there were a number of quick 10- and 11-year-olds coming along. Depthwise, he knew things would eventually line up. He waited patiently for the combination to materialize.
For instance, Wood River went into last year's state meet with five girls qualifying for individual events, and they finished fourth as a team.
This fall, Wood River swimmers worked hard, training about 90 minutes a day, five days a week. The hard work paid off. Gallagher demanded a lot and the kids responded. The girls qualified 13 for state. The Wolverine boys sent four to Boise.
You still have to perform well in the finals, however, and Wood River "had wonderful finals," at last weekend's state meet, the coach said.
Seeded third behind Moscow and Sandpoint in the 400 free relay finals, first-place Wood River (3:47.95) came within three seconds of the state record and blew away second-place Moscow by over six seconds. Amanda Harris went out to the early lead and Hailey never gave it up.
Gallagher said, "Amanda got us a big enough lead and we hung on."
On the winning team were Harris, Sundali, Hague and McGinnis.
Wood River's winning 200 free relay team of Harris, Sundali, Collins and Hague were seeded second into the finals and likewise saved their best for last—beating Coeur d'Alene by 3.68 seconds. The 200 medley team of Harris, Collins, Sundali and McGinnis were also seeded second and won their event by 2.56 seconds.
McGinnis provided a huge highlight in 200 free. Seeded second into the finals behind her rival Lauren Baisden of Hillcrest (Idaho Falls), McGinnis out-touched Baisden at the wall in a photo finish—only .13 seconds separating the top three.
Gallagher was pleased with Hannah McNees, seeded seventh of eight in the finals, jamming to a fourth-place 500 freestyle finish with a touch at the wall. McKenna Collins set a new school record placing fourth in 100 breast stroke.
Sundali, seeded seventh in the 100 butterfly finals, set a new school record with another touch at the wall for second place. And young Megan Hayes won 100 butterfly consolation.
The achievements weren't reserved for the girls.
Senior Ray Bryson led four Wood River boys, setting new school records with his preliminary times in 200 IM and 500 free, and anchoring the second-place 400 free relay team in the consolation bracket.
Also, at the state meet Wood River coach Gallagher was awarded the National Interscholastic Coach's Association Fraternity Award. Gallagher was acknowledged for being the only coach for the Wood River team since its inception.
Gallagher has high hopes for Wood River's future, because the depth is substantial with a number of talented eighth-graders just waiting.
Here are the results from the Idaho State High School Swimming Championships held Nov .4-5 at Treasure Valley YMCA. Check out a photo of the Wood River's boys' team in next week's Local Life section.
There were 437 qualified swimmers (250 girls and 187 boys) from 34 teams. The meet was set up like the Olympics where the top 16 from Friday's preliminaries went into Saturday's finals—the top eight into the finals, 9-16 into consolation:
Final girls' standings: 1—Wood River 283. 2—Coeur d'Alene 213. 3—Sandpoint 170. 4—Moscow 169. 5—Lake City 150. 6—Century 118. 7—Mountain Home 114. 8—Bishop Kelly 107. 9—Centennial 102. 10—Post Falls 94. 11—Capital 84. 12—Hillcrest 69. 13—Timberline 61. 14—Caldwell 59. 15—Skyline 56. 16—Boise 55. 17—Eagle 52. 18—Highland 44. 19—Twin Falls 40. 20—Minidoka 26. 21—Idaho Falls 18. 22—Lewiston 17. 23—Meridian and Liberty Charter 16. 25—Borah 12. 26—Bonneville 2.
200 medley relay: 1—Wood River "A" (Amanda Harris 4th free, McKenna Collins breast 2nd, Anja Sundali 3rd fly, Racheal McGinnis back 1st) 1:55.89 (school record). 2—Coeur d'Alene "A" 1:58.45.
200 freestyle relay: 1—Wood River "A" (Amanda Harris, Anja Sundali, McKenna Collins, Natalie Hague) 1:44.66. 2—Coeur d'Alene "A" 1:48.34.
400 freestyle relay: 1—Wood River "A" (Amanda Harris, Anja Sundali, Natalie Hague, Racheal McGinnis) 3:47.95 (school record, 3 seconds off the state record). 2—Moscow "A" 3:54.19.
50 freestyle: 1—Amanda Harris 24.91 (just .71 seconds off the 24.20 state record). 5—Natalie Hague 25.95. 8—McKenna Collins 26.81.
100 freestyle: 1—Caroline Campbell (Moscow) 54.92. 6—Natalie Hague 57.83.
200 freestyle: 1—Racheal McGinnis 2:02.44. Consolation: 2—Hannah McNees. 5—Taylor Straley.
500 freestyle: 1—Lauren Baisden (Hillcrest) 5:28.02. 4—Hannah McNees 5:51.51. Consolation: 7—Taylor Straley 6:18.25. First and second alternates—Esther Williams and Ashleigh Share.
100 butterfly: 1—Mattie Schmidt (Moscow) 1:02.20. 2—Anja Sundali 1:03.03 (new school record). Consolation: 1—Megan Hayes 1:10.86.
100 backstroke: 1—Hannah Ross (Highland) 59.34. 7—Racheal McGinnis 1:05.35. Consolation: 7—Lacey Werley 1:10.87.
100 breaststroke: 1—Paulina Gralow (Sandpoint) 1:09.35. 4—McKenna Collins 1:11.99 (new school record). 31—Rachael Becker. 32—Rian Ervin.
Final boys' standings: 1—Boise 268. 2—Moscow 234. 3—Centennial 191. 4—Meridian 168.5. 5—Lake City 165. 6—Bonneville 141. 7—Sandpoint 132. 8—Eagle 130.5. 9—Mountain View 114. 10—Idaho Falls 109. 11—Bishop Kelly 87. 12—Timberline 75. 13—Borah 45. 14—Skyline and Century 44. 16—Wood River 39. 17—Post Falls 36. 18—Coeur d'Alene 32. 19—Orofino 24. 20—Twin Falls 23. 20—Skyview and Nampa Christian 20. 22—Capital 15. 23—Minidoka 7. 24—Hillcrest 4. 25—Pocatello 2.
200 IM: 1—Nick Blank (Lake City) 1:55.12. 6—Ray Bryson (set new school record of 2:09.35 in prelims).
500 freestyle: 1—Nick Blank (Lake City) 4:39.89. 4—Ray Bryson (set new school record of 5:11.84 in prelims).
400 freestyle relay—Consolation: 2—Wood River (Scott Isaacs, Neil Player, Dan Husband, Ray Bryson) 4:09.96 (new school record).
Coach Brian Gallagher and his Wood River state champions lift the first-place trophy in triumph at the Boise pool Saturday. Courtesy photo
