Defending champion Richland brings Bomber power back to state swim and dive meet

The Richland High School girls swim and dive team has had 12 months to let its first state title sink in.

Yet several girls still can’t believe it happened.

If any Bombers squad had been favored to win, it likely would have been one with five-time state champion Lisa Bratton. But the year after she left, Richland topped the podium, sharing the Class 4A trophy with Jackson of Everett.

“We definitely don’t take it for granted,” junior Katie Schroder said. “Defending state champion, that’s something a lot of people won’t be able to say. We don’t use it as an expectation. We use it more as a motivator or encourager, that we can actually do it.”

Schroder, Alyssa Musick, Lauren Hall, Claire Schaef, Neomi Mennetrot, BreAnn Bell, Marcia Kim, Kelsea Hinkley, Kelsey Olsen, April Mercer and Alyssa Workman will compete for another state title Friday and Saturday in Federal Way. It will be tough to win again, they say, but they won’t make it easy for anyone else to take the crown, either.

Though the Bombers had nine girls in last year’s state finals, they earned points in 11 of 12 events.

“There are quite a few schools with good swimmers, but many of them only have a couple,” Richland/Hanford swim coach Randy Willis said. “If you can get four to five different girls that are making finals in their events and the relays, you separate yourselves from those teams. The bulk of those teams have a relay and one or two swimmers individually. Last year, we won with 169 points, but (3A powerhouse) Mercer Island, they’re pushing 250, 300 points. That’s where their depth comes in from having so many swimmers.”

The lack of an aquatic center in the Tri-Cities has frustrated Willis for years. Indoor pools on the west side are as abundant as parks in the Tri-Cities, he said.

Wenatchee coach James Elwyn, whose squad has a fierce but friendly rivalry with Richland, believes the dearth of resources might give Willis’ teams a competitive edge.

“I think a wise coach — which I would consider Randy to be — would say we have to go through something that is difficult,” Elwyn said. “We don’t have a nice plush facility to go to when it gets cold. We have to fight through it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he says exactly that.”

One key to the Bombers’ success is a strong relationship with the Tri-City Channel Cats club team. All of Richland’s state swimmers this year are or have been Channel Cats. Willis and Channel Cats coaches coordinate training schedules so the kids can get the maximum benefits from both programs.

Mennetrot, a student at Calvary Christian School in Kennewick, joined the Richland team in part because her club coaches gave the program rave reviews. The sophomore has been invaluable to the Bombers this season, swimming their fastest 50-yard freestyle relay split and the second-fastest in the 100 free. She learned Sunday that she was a state wild card in the 50 free.

Meanwhile, Musick and Hall will race in their fourth state meet. They were on Richland’s 2012 state runner-up team with eventual Division I swimmers Bratton (Texas A&M), Nicole Weinman (Idaho) and Sarah Olsen (Vermont). That season, Bratton won titles in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.

“When Lauren and I were freshmen, we came into a very good state team that came in second,” said Musick, who has committed to South Dakota State. “We saw those girls, and that drove us to be better. We wanted to be as good as them.”

Schaef, a sophomore, is one of the Bombers’ best hopes for an individual state title. She is seeded fourth in the 200 and 500 free.

Last year, Schaef struggled early in the 200 free final and finished fifth, but she rebounded to take second in the 500.

“Randy was like, ‘We just need to stay calm. We cannot be tense,’ ” Schroder said. “There was a lot of pressure on her, and people saying, ‘You can win both of your events as a freshman. Not even Lisa (Bratton) did that.’ We did lots of dancing, and we told her stories and jokes all night to loosen her up. I think it really helped us all as a whole, too.”

When the Bombers gathered before the final event, the 400 free relay, Willis told them they were in the lead and could be state champions. They didn’t need to win the relay, Willis said, but they could not allow any other team to get between them and two-time defending state champ Newport of Bellevue.

Relay swimmers Schaef, Hall, Musick and McKenzie Schroder — Katie Schroder’s older sister — followed through. They touched the wall in fifth place, a spot behind Newport.

Richland finished with 169 points, tying with Jackson, the relay winner, for the meet title. Newport was third with 168 points, and Wenatchee took fourth with 164.

The championship ended a lengthy wait for Willis, who helped start the Richland and Hanford girls teams in 1994. He and Kathy Piper coached the squads together until Piper retired after the 2013-14 season.

“You could definitely feel it has been a long, long journey to build up such an amazing program,” Musick said. “He was so proud and so excited, and everything he worked for the last 20-something years, it all paid off in that one moment.”

Every point and every competitor mattered. Hinkley took fourth in diving, and Kelsey Olsen was 15th, adding a combined 17 points to the Bombers’ tally. Schaef, Hall, Musick and McKenzie Schroder all finished in the top 16 in two individual events. Bell and Kim provided a boost in the relays. Katie Schroder became the second Richland swimmer to compete at state in the 100 breaststroke, placing 12th. And Willis had plenty of help all season from assistant Jesse Grow and dive coach Melissa Fields.

“I think it was really the depth of our team that we had,” Schaef said. “It really was a miracle. Everyone was just in the right mindset. We all pulled together and made it happen. Somehow we found something that pushed us to that win. I don’t know if it will happen again, but it was magical. We had just lost one of the best Bomber swimmers of all time (in Bratton). No one expected us to come back with something, and we managed to.”

Richland’s championship was the second for a team east of the Cascades since Eastmont won back-to-back AA/A titles in 1989-90. Pullman won the 2A title in 2013.

“There’s a thrill about the fact that I beat the drum that we’re on the east side, and the west-side teams don’t see us and they focus on each other, and then the beasts from the East sneak up, like Richland and Hanford,” Willis said. “I just play that up to the girls. I tell them: ‘You’re overlooked. It’s not who you are, it’s just where you are. Let’s introduce ourselves to those girls.’ ”

No introduction necessary this year.

This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Defending champion Richland brings Bomber power back to state swim and dive meet."