FEDERAL WAY – There is no defense in swimming. The only thing a swimmer can do is his swim his fastest.
That’s what Owen Robertson did Saturday at the Class 4A boys swimming state championships, and the Union junior took home a second-place medal in the 200-yard freestyle.
The top qualifier out of Friday’s preliminary heats, Robertson cut two-tenths of a second off his time from Friday, but that was still more than two seconds slower than Jaiden Sreenivasan of Redmond.
Sreenivasan won in 1 minute, 40.20 seconds with Robertson clocking 1:42.42.
So Robertson was not complaining.
“I was really happy with (the 200 free),” Robertson said. “The first-place guy, he swam really well, so he definitely deserved that. Jaiden, 1:40? I’m impressed. I was really happy, though — 1:42, that was a (personal record) off of yesterday.”
Robertson was the No. 3 seed heading into the final of the 500 freestyle, but slipped back to finish fifth in 4:46.37, two seconds slower than Friday’s prelim swim.
“The 500 went well,” Robertson said. “It was an add from yesterday. But I’m a little bit tired today, second day (of the meet). But we had fun with the team last night, so I’m really happy with that one.”
Robertson really enjoyed the state-meet experience with his Union teammates. After the Titans lost several key contributors from last year’s team that placed in the relays, Robertson took on a bigger leadership role with the Titans this winter.
“The team dynamic was awesome this year,” he said. “We had a few really fun seniors, and then a lot of juniors. Basically our whole team up here (in the 200 free relay) was a junior team, so we’ll be excited to be coming back next year.”
