IST Swimmers Fare Well at State High School Meets

Eastside high school swimmers who also compete for the Issaquah Swim Team (IST) tore up the water at the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) boys 3A and 4A state swim championships held February 16 and 17 at the King County Aquatics Center in Puyallup, Wash.

At the 3A event, seniors Christian Verbrugghe of Issaquah High School and Michael Tung of Skyline High School finished their high school competitive careers very well with two top-eight places each.  They faced each other in the 50-Yard Freestyle, where Verbrugghe raced to a third-place finish with a time of 21:80, and Tung finished in sixth with a time of 22:04.  Verbrugghe also finished third in the 100-Yard Butterfly, posting a time of 52:40, and anchored his team’s 11th place finish in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay.  Tung touched at 1:00:85 in the 100-Yard Breaststroke for a fourth-place finish.  Chase Goulant, a freshman competing for Mt. Si, announced a bright future with a 15^th place finish in the 500-Yard Freestyle, with a time of 4:59:65. 

At the 4A meet, James Harrang, a junior at Eastlake, also posted a 15^th place finish in the 200-Yard Individual Medley with a time of 2:07:65.The Issaquah High School 200-Yard Medley Relay team also placed third in state finals, with three IST swimmers in the water:  J. Verbrugghe (junior, breaststroke), C. Verbrugghe (butterfly), and Ethan Lyons (freestyle, senior).  Other IST swimmers who qualified to compete at the state meets were Will Baker (Eastlake sophomore) and Brad Chi (Issaquah junior).

In addition to the excellent showing at the state meets, C. Verbrugghe was selected to the All Kingco Athletic Conference team, and Tung, Goulart, J. Verbrugghe, Chi, and Liberty freshman Austin Briggs were honorable mention selections to the team.  These IST athletes were joined in receiving All Kingco Athletic Conference team honors by Laura Halter, swim coach at Issaquah High School, who was named as Coach of the Year.  In addition to coaching both the boys and girls teams at Issaquah High School, Halter teaches an IST training group of kids 10 years old and under. 

IST is a competitive club swim team affiliated with Pacific Northwest Swimming and USA Swimming.  Led by Head Coach Kyle Johnson, IST instructs about 250 athletes from the greater Issaquah area who range from 6 to 18 years of age and are of all competitive skill levels

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