South Whidbey High School junior Ashley Lynch and the Falcons’ 400-yard freestyle relay team qualified for the state swim meet at the 2A district finals Saturday, Nov. 9, in Anacortes.

The state meet is Friday and Saturday, Nov. 15 and 16, at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Swimmers had three avenues to state: finish in the top three at district, post a state-qualifying time or earn a wildcat berth. Each state event has 24 openings, and wildcats were distributed to fill out what slots were left after the automatic district qualifiers and those with state qualifying times were plugged in.

The South Whidbey’s state participants all received wildcat spots.

As a team at district, the six-person Falcon squad placed eighth out of the 10 schools that scored in the meet. Liberty of Renton won with 337 points; South Whidbey had 46.

South Whidbey was the only 1A school at the district meet. Since so few small schools field swim teams, all of those 2A and lower are lumped into one classification for the postseason.

Lynch qualified for state in both the 200- and 500-yard freestyles and in the 400-yard freestyle relay with freshmen Parker Forsyth and Abigail Ireland and junior Katie Zundel. Alternates are freshman Devin King and junior Sarah Zundel.

Lynch posted the fifth-best time in the 200 at district (2:08.26) and the eighth-best in the 500 (5:52.88).

Forsyth was 10th in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:17.12), and Katie Zundel took 12th in the 100 butterfly (1:12.03).

The 400-yard freestyle relay team was seventh (4:13.912).

The Zundels, Parker and King were ninth in the 200 medley relay (2:15.28), and Lynch, Ireland, Sarah Zundel and King finished in the same spot in the 200 free relay (2:05.73).

In Friday’s preliminaries, Forsyth placed 13th in the 100 fly (1:10.76), Katie Zundel 14th in the 100 backstroke, Ireland 15th in the 200 free (2:24.55) and 23rd in the 100 free (1:06.4), and Sarah Zundel 20th in the 100 breaststroke.

Lynch finished 13th in the 200-yard freestyle at last year’s state meet in 2:09.88.

Her district time of 2:08.26 is ranked 16th going into this year’s state meet. She is listed 19th in the 500.

The 400 freestyle relay team sits at 20.

Parker Forsyth swims the butterfly leg in the medley relay Saturday. (Photo by Jim Waller/South Whidbey Record)

Katie Zundel handles the backstroke leg of the medley relay. (Photo by Jim Waller/South Whidbey Record)

Sarah Zundel swims the breaststroke in the medley relay finals. (Photo by Jim Waller/South Whidbey Record)

The South Whidbey High School swim team at the district meet: Katie Zundel, left, Devin King, Ashley Lynch, coach Chris Erickson, Abigail Ireland, Parker Forsyth and Sarah Zundel. (Provided photo)