Diving cousins make their way back to state

Kelsea Hinkley and Amanda Andersen are cousins who practically grew up together on and off the diving board.

And now the high school seniors are state-bound once again.

Richland’s Hinkley and Hanford’s Andersen qualified for state during an 11-dive meet in September. Hinkley won her second Class 4A district title on Halloween in Moses Lake, while Andersen was the 3A runner-up.

This weekend, they head to Federal Way, where expectations will be high for both. Last year, Hinkley took fourth in the 4A state meet, while Andersen placed 17th in the 3A field.

“I think she’s done really well,” Hinkley said. “She’s improved a ton this year. She was good last year, but I’m excited to see what she does at state.”

The 3A finals are earlier than the 4As, so Andersen will stay at the pool to see whether her cousin can win a title. Last season, Hinkley landed 10 spots higher than her finish from 2013.

“I definitely think that it would be super awesome if she won,” Andersen said. “She has worked very hard these last three years. She has the talent to do it. I think she has to concentrate during the competition and not let other people’s scores get to her head and focus on her dives.”

Hinkley is relieved to be healthy after years of physical issues. To ease pain in her wrists, she had surgery on both arms to shorten the ulna, a bone in the forearm, and didn’t get to dive as a freshman. She also had a muscle hernia and torn ligament repaired.

“We’re thinking the worst is finally over,” said Hinkley, who has undergone eight procedures in all.

Diving isn’t the only sport these former club gymnasts have conquered. Hinkley played on Richland’s state runner-up softball team last spring, while Andersen competed in the 3A state track and field championships in Tacoma. Andersen holds the Hanford girls pole vault record of 10 feet, 9 inches.

Foreign experience

Norway is known for cold-weather sports, but Anette Eriksen, who grew up near Oslo, has spent much of her life in the water.

As an exchange student in the Mid-Columbia, Eriksen has been able to stick with the sport she loves.

Eriksen attends Sunnyside Christian High School, but it doesn’t offer swimming, so she joined Prosser’s team.

She will compete for the Mustangs at the 2A state meet, helping the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays qualify with third-place finishes at districts. The 200 medley relay got in as a wild card.

When Eriksen goes home next summer, she will have a friend nearby to call on from her Prosser swim days.

Eriksen met fellow Norwegian Kaja Johnsen, an exchange student at Kamiakin, during the season-opening Richland Twilight meet. One big difference between the girls is that Johnsen didn’t know how to swim before joining Kamiakin’s squad, but they bonded quickly. They sat down and excitedly chatted in their native language, drawing a crowd.

“I found out she lived really close, like 15 minutes from me,” Eriksen said. “It was insane. It’s more common to be an exchange student from Norway here. It’s funny how we ended up so close to each other and didn’t know each other. Now I can take one friend home.”

Eriksen will join a small list of area exchange students who have competed at state, including Hanford’s Beatrice Bottini and Francesca Lestini, who were from Italy.

“I just knew that when we started the season, people were talking about something called state,” Eriksen said. “I knew that’s what we were swimming toward. I know it’s exciting because it’s a big meet, and I get to be with the swim team for a weekend, and I get to go to Seattle.”

SPRINTING TO STATE: Southridge freshman Hilary Petersen got her first state cut during her 3A district-winning swim in the 100 free.

Petersen was third at the 50-yard mark, trailing Kennewick senior Blair Murphy and Hanford freshman Kayla Burck, but she rallied past her Tri-City Channel Cats teammates to touch the wall in 55.71 seconds. The state time standard is 55.90.

Murphy was second in 56.47.

“I was really happy about that,” Petersen said. “I’ve never beaten Blair in club, so when I did it, it was a really exciting thing for me.”

The week before in Ellensburg, Petersen finished ahead of Bulldogs sophomore Krista Wilson, another swimmer she has admired for years. Wilson was last year’s 2A state runner-up in the 100 free.

“I never beat her ever in my life, and I finally beat her in the 50 free,” Petersen said. “I feel like that was the beginning of all of it.”

SHIFTING AROUND: Hanford sophomores Megan Gelston and Maddie Elliott each dropped an individual state event so they could swim on all three relays. Gelston turned down her wild card in the 100 butterfly, while Elliott withdrew from the 500 free, an event in which she was 3A district champion.

Gelston will swim the 100 backstroke, and Elliott will compete in the 100 breaststroke.

Kamiakin sophomore Courtney Lewis got a berth in the 500 free when the final psych sheets were released Monday.

This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 7:20 PM with the headline "Diving cousins make their way back to state."