Before the season got underway, Redmond senior Aly Davis set a lofty personal goal for herself.
She wanted to post state-qualifying times in each of the eight individual events offered in high school swimming: the 50-, 100-, 200- and 500-yard freestyles, the 200 individual medley (IM), and the 100 butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke events.
One by one, those times fell by the wayside, until finally, at the Kingco 4A Championships last Saturday, Davis swam a lightning-fast time of 5 minutes, 8.13 seconds in the grueling 500 free to reach her goal.
“It’s gone pretty well, I can’t complain at all,” said Davis on how her season has gone. “I’ve obviously had all of the girls supporting me, from the very beginning. There was no pressure at all, but I put some pressure on myself because I wanted to do ( the ironwoman) for myself, and for the team. When I got all eight, I was pretty excited about that.”
DIFFERENT STROKES
Having qualified for all eight events, Davis and Mustang head coach Julie Barashkoff had the daunting task of deciding which events the senior would participate in during the postseason.
While she held one of the top three times in the league in the 200 free and 100 breaststroke for much of the season, neither of those are events Davis will compete in at the district meet this Saturday at Juanita High School.
She decided to focus on the 200 IM, and the ultra-competitive 100 fly.
“I really like IM, I get a little bored swimming one stroke, so I like to mix it up,” Davis explained. “The 100 fly is one of the most competitive races, Katie Kinnear from Skyline, she’s a great girl and one of my really good friends. I think it’ll be a really exciting race.”
Davis has her sights set on beating Kinnear, who won last year’s state fly title in 53.95. 
While Davis might have an easier time winning gold in the other events, she added that she wanted to race against the best.
“I’m pretty all around, which can be good and bad … but I wanted to pick something where it’d be a good competition, because we come here to race,” she said.
As far as coaching the young phenom for the next two weeks, Barashkoff believes that, as talented as Davis is, her success will lie primarily with what’s going on between the ears.
“Basically we just work on having her stay mentally focused,” Barashkoff said. “Its very easy to get uptight when you want to perform well and get the best time. Stay mentally focused and stay relaxed.”
RELAY FOR STATE
Although this is Davis’ first year with the program, – as she cited wanting some team experience as preparation for swimming in college – the girls on the team have embraced her, and her ability in the pool.
Davis would like nothing more to share that success and be able to swim with her teammates at the state meet come Nov. 12.
In order to do that, the Mustangs will need to shave off approximately five seconds off their medley relay time and six seconds off the 400 free relay this weekend at the district meet – a tall task, but far from impossible.
Davis, fellow senior Allison Binkerd, junior Emily Smith and sophomore Catherine Love will be aiming to clock 1:44.50 in the 200 medley relay or 3:26.50 in the 400 free relay to earn that state berth.
“We are so close, we are so excited,” Davis said. “I care more about this relay than any of my individual swims. We have three girls in both our relays, we’re the same four (swimmers), and I love them to death.”
Last season, the Mustangs were in the same situation with Heather Harper, who was going to swim alone at the state meet until the final race at the district meet, when the Mustangs qualified a medley relay by the slimmest of margins, a scenario that the team hopes to duplicate.
At the large and cavernous King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way, however, all eyes will be on Davis as she hopes to make it back-to-back individual titles for the Mustangs after Harper out-touched Eisenhower senior Emilie Pleger at the wall, winning the breaststroke last year in 1:03.92.
“I’m hoping to go in and put up some good times, race some girls and hopefully make Redmond proud,” Davis said on her goals for state.
Added Barashkoff, ” I tend to have a lot more confidence in Aly than she does herself, but I think (a state title) is very doable. I’m hoping Aly says ‘hey, I’m gonna go out there and show (Kinnear) that I can do it too.'”
