Washington’s boys and girls had strong showings at Tuesday’s swim meet with Northside-Jacksonville and Rose. The boys dominated their competition to earn 186 points. Rose followed in second with 40 points. Rose’s girls barely scooted by Washington’s, outscoring them 121-110.

The boys conquered the relay events. They had squads take first and second places in the 200-yard medley, 200-yard freestyle and 400-yard freestyle.

Washington representatives competed mostly with each other in the individual events. Eric Lovenberg, Hodges Tubaugh and Harrison Schmidt took the top-three ranks in the 200-yard freestyle. Kevin Andrews, AJ Howard, Eric Crozier, Win Martin and Leland Hill all finished first through fifth, respectively, in the 50-yard freestyle. Mason Beach, Crozier, Hill and Allen Crisp all placed in the top-five in the 100-yard freestyle.

Andrews, Schmidt and Tubaugh earned the top-three finishes in the 500-yard freestyle. Andrews finished in just over five minutes — long before his fellow Pam Pack swimmers. Schmidt and Tubaugh were separated by less than three seconds.

Washington had the only three competitors in the 100-yard backstroke. Justin Clark and Beach rounded out the top finishes for Washington with first and second in the 100-yard breaststroke.

A state title is the goal Washington laid out at the start of the season. The boys’ squad it chock full of experience that will help take them there.

“A lot of them have been at the state level,” said head coach Spencer Pake. “Kevin Andrews is a returning state runner up from last year. Eric Lovenberg was a top-five finisher last year. AJ Howard has stepped up his game quite a bit and should be in the top five this year.”

Andrews, as well as his teammates, know how to keep it light and enjoy their time swimming. The last event of the meet was the 400-yard freestyle relay. Three Pam Pack groups were the only ones competing. Andrews took a goofy dive into the pool to start off his stretch of the race.

“They’ve got to enjoy themselves,” Pake said. “Expectations are very high for this team. They need to stay focused, but understand they can have a good time along the journey.”

The girls continue to come together as a team. They shined in the freestyle events. Caroline Manning and Courtney Richards placed first and second, respectively, in the 200-yard freestyle. Rose had a pair of girls top the 50- and 100-yard freestyle standings, but the Pam Pack had girls finish in third through sixth in both events. Washington also had units place first and third in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The girls had the second and fourth place squads for the 200-yard freestyle relay, too.

For both the boys and girls, the meet was a quality way to follow up their best showing of the season thus far.

“We were coming off our best performance of the year last week at New Bern,” Pake said. “It tough to have those kinds of performances back-to-back. We still have room to grow. We’re still trying to find out where our new swimmers are going to fit in the scheme of things for our run to the championship.”