Heather Harper’s bid for back-to-back Class 4A state gold medals in the 100-yard breaststroke fell just short — two hundredths of a second short.
Harper, a home-schooled junior who swims for Redmond High, was edged out by Skyline freshman Maria Volodkevich, who barely out-touched Harper to the finish at last Saturday’s state swim and dive meet at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.
In the closest race of the state meet, Volodkevich, who barely lost to Harper at the Sea-King District meet two weeks ago, won the state gold medal with an automatic All-American time of 1 minute, 4.25 seconds. Harper, the defending state champion, settled for the silver medal in 1:04.27, which was also an automatic All-American time. Garfield senior Jordan Hanna was third with a time of 1:04.97.
Harper, the top seed and favorite to win in the finals, said she thought she had won when she touched the wall.
“I looked around and for about two seconds I thought I had won and then I realized I didn’t win,” Harper said. “I was like ‘what just happened.’ Harper earned the top seed to Saturday’s 100 breaststroke finals with a personal-best performance in Friday’s preliminaries, where she clocked a 1:03.79, which ranks sixth-best all-time in the state.
“I knew I had to swim fast to get the top seed going into the finals,” she said.
Harper got that top seed, but admitted she got ahead of herself and thought she was going to win in the finals before the race started.
“I wasn’t swimming as relaxed and my turns weren’t as good,” Harper said. “I just swam differently in the finals. I don’t know why.”
Harper, the lone swimmer representing Redmond High at the state meet, also placed fifth in the 100 butterfly in 58.45.
“I’m happy with how I did, I just really wanted to win (the breaststroke gold medal),” Haprer said. “I got the sixth-fastest time in the state, that’s huge and I’m really happy with how I did in the butterfly.”
Harper now turns her focus to the 2009 AT&T Short Course Nationals, which will be held Dec. 3-5 at the King County Aquatic Center.
“I’m now focused on the 100 breaststroke at Short Course Nationals,” Harper said. “I just want to keep getting better and better.”
