Boys Swimming -- Kentridge's Carney Dominates

RENTON - Kalen Carney earned two victories with state-qualifying times and eclipsed a 13-year-old school record as he led the Kentridge High School boys swim team to the championship and claimed swimmer of the meet honors at the Kentridge Invitational yesterday at Hazen Pool.

Carney swam the 500 freestyle in 4 minutes, 53.15 seconds to break the Kentridge record of 4:54.16 set in 1984 by Dave Mann. Carney also qualified for state in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:02.23, giving the senior his fourth state-eligible event. He already had qualified in the 50 free and 100 free.

Kentridge, the Class AAA state champion in 1994 and 1995, won on the strength of Carney's victories in the 200 IM and 500 free, as well as victories in the 200 free, diving, 100 free, 200 free relay and 400 free relay.

Corey Westendorf won the 200 free (1:51.30) and the 100 free (50.89). Steven "Board" Spring won the diving with a score of 214.90. The 400 free relay team qualified for state with its time of 3:25.44.

Lake Stevens hit three state times, including its winning time of 1:47.37 in the 200 medley relay. The Vikings also qualified with their second-place finish in the 400 free relay (3:28.35). Chris Mlakar was second to Carney in the 200 IM and qualified for state with his third place in the 100 butterfly.

The only other state qualifier was Puyallup's Austin Leonard, who made the mark with his winning time of 55.25 in the 100 fly.

Leonard also won in the 100 breaststroke in 1:04.38.

Ram Relays

TACOMA - In what could be termed a measuring stick of the state's top Class AAA boys swim teams, Bellevue edged KingCo Conference rival Mercer Island by three points to claim the title in the 39th annual Ram Relays at Wilson High.

Bellevue, the defending state AAA champion, scored 79 points, Mercer Island had 76 and host Wilson 71.

The top three teams accounted for 27 of the 28 state qualifying times at the meet.

"These were the fastest-ran relays since I've been here," said Deward Loose, Wilson's sixth-year coach. "I wanted the big three teams from last year's (state) meet here. I'm hoping this is a precursor to the state meet. "

In a format that pitted a pair of swimmers from each school and combined the times to determine a winner, Bellevue claimed six of 15 events.