FEDERAL WAY — Hailey Grotte’s final high school swimming meet couldn’t have been scripted any better for the LaCenter senior.
Grotte won both her individual events, the 50 and 100-yard freestyles and was named the swimmer of the meet. Teammate Bryanna Ungs finally broke through and won the 100-yard breaststroke to capture her first win.
Grotte felt confident in the results of the 100 free, so her focus was the 50 free. She wanted that race — badly. The senior had finished second twice before to North Kitsap’s Eleanor Beers, but Beers chose not to swim the high school season this year, instead focusing on club swimming, and that left the door wide open for Grotte.
“It’s so amazing to see all your hard work finally pay off,” Grotte said after accepting her blue-ribboned medal. “I’ve been second for two years now and when I switched to the 50 and … really been pushing for it and I’m just so happy.”
She didn’t disappoint. Grotte finished in 23.69 seconds, dropping .02 seconds from Friday’s prelims and out-touching Sammamish’s Katie Walz who finished second in 23.96.
Grotte said even the smallest of details matter in the 50 free.
“The 50 … everything has to be right for it to work,” she said. “The amount of breaths you take, your turn, everything in between and I just think finally this year it was good. It was on point.”
In the 100 free, Grotte raced to a time of 51.54, an all-time personal best by .35 seconds. The Washington State University commit said the race is different for her even though it’s still considered a sprint.
“I’m a sprinter so I always go out way too fast and then I die,” she said. “I breathe a lot the first 50 so I don’t run out of oxygen in my body.”
Grotte said she uses breathing exercises pre-race — three-second in, two-seconds out, six times — to increase her oxygen level.
“Especially in the 50 when I do it I race faster,” she said, adding she couldn’t have been happier with how her final state meet ended. “I’m really proud of how I came out this year.”
The only goal she didn’t reach Saturday was falling short of her junior national times, something she’ll work on during the club season.
“That’s defiantly my next focus,” she said.
Ungs was ecstatic with her win in the breaststroke.
“I can’t even begin to describe how it feels,” she said. “Since my freshman year me and (Aberdeen’s) Anna Weber have been swimming against each other.”
Ungs, a junior, and Weber, a senior, were dead even heading to the wall as the crowd roared and Ungs wasn’t sure if she would be able to get her in the end.
“I wanted to get that first place and when we touched the wall and we were neck and neck I saw in the corner of my eye I saw she was right there,” Ungs said. “I was like tearing up I was so excited. I could see my thin crowd of friends and family cheering so hard.”
It’s hard not to panic when a race is that close, Ungs said.
“You just have to keep your mind in the game and you have to know what you want and push,” she said. “I wasn’t going to let her take it from me.”
Ungs was fourth in the 200 individual medley and was satisfied with her time of 2:14.12. She’s been fighting a tricep injury before district and it limited her in that event. She placed third last year and was two seconds faster.
“I’m still proud of myself because I dropped three seconds (from district),” she said.
That made the win in the breaststroke that much sweeter.
“This whole junior year I’ve just been working and working and pushing and pushing and I wanted to get that first place,” she said.
