FEDERAL WAY — Columbia River’s Liam Noftsker doesn’t shy away from hard work.
The sophomore is self-driven to the point if there is a part of his race that falls short of his expectation, he works on it until it’s right.
Noftsker earned his second and third individual state medal in his young career with top four finishes at the 2A boys swimming and diving championships Saturday at the King County Aquatic Center.
Noftsker finished third in the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 53.76 seconds and was fourth in the 100 freestyle in 48.31. He was also eighth in the backstroke as a freshman.
“I see this as room for improvement,” Noftsker said after receiving his medal in the backstroke. “Whenever I don’t improve as much as I want to it just pushes me. My drive just gets larger and I can’t wait to get back in the water and try harder.”
Noftsker, who swims year-round for Vancouver Swim Club, is already thinking about next year.
“I want to work on everything and get faster in the water,” he said.
Columbia River senior Simon Parish placed seventh in the 200 individual medley and was 11th in the 100 butterfly.
Parish and Noftsker also swam on the fifth-place 200 medley relay team that included Daniel Ishchuk and Reagan Karcher. The Chieftains 400 free relay finished in fifth place with Parish, Karcher, Ischuk and Noftsker on the anchor. Columbia River finished seventh in the team standings.
Hockinson’s Alex Wendler placed fifth in the 100 breaststroke (1:02.07).
Mark Morris senior Kodee Soetamin finished seventh in the 100 free and 14th in the 100 free. The Monarchs finished 19th in the team standings.
In the 3A meet, Ilia Zablotovskii came in second to Bainbridge’s Jude Wenker who set a meet record in 44.99 in the 100 freestyle and finished fourth in the 50 free.
The senior stuck with Wenker until the 50-yard mark, but struggled in the back half after catching a bug about two days ago, Zablotovskii said, adding his endurance suffered. He finished the 100 in a time of 46.08 and the 50 in 21.29.
“I was trying to get those times but I did the best I could,” he said.
In the 50 free, Zablotovskii, who is considering swimming at Whitworth in Spokane next season, said his turn at the wall “was terrible.”
“I will fix it that’s for sure.”
Mountain View’s Christian Madden placed sixth in the 200 freestyle (1:44.46) and fifth in the 500 freestyle (4:39.61). Mountain View’s 200 medley relay placed eighth (1:39.27) in the 2A meet.
Earlier in the day in the 4A meet, Camas’ Jaden Kim was the top local placing with his runner-up finish in the 100 butterfly, finishing in 49.92 seconds.
Kim also contributed to Camas’ third-place finish in the 200 free relay (1:27.39), fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay (1:36.85) and a eighth-place finish in the 400 free relay (3:16.29) as Camas placed seventh in the team standings.
