Girls swimming: Tam completes quest for MCAL glory

After a near-miss at the MCAL championships last season, the Tam High girls swimming and diving team completed a sweep of league honors on Saturday in rival waters.

The Red-tailed Hawks had already gone undefeated in league dual meets for the second-straight season and then pooled together enough combined points to finish first at the MCAL finals at Redwood.

It was Tam’s first league pennant since 2018 after a three-year run by the host Giants.

“I can’t believe it,” said Tam coach Candace Murphy. “This is the smallest team we’ve ever fielded — we only had 32 girls. Somehow, we had depth. Yes, we have Addie Everage as our star, and she’s propelled our relays as well. But we also had other amazing performances.”

Everage led the way, winning the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2 minutes, 10.41 seconds. She added the 100 backstroke title in 56.00.

The senior, who will swim at UC San Diego next year, said the Red-tailed Hawks were motivated after a narrow loss to Redwood a year ago.

“This is the first year being really confident we could win,” said Everage. “We’ve been super focused on taking the whole meet. We’ve never won (the MCAL meet) since my class has been at Tam so that’s been our focus. It’s been really exciting trying to win this meet.”

The Hawks were first with 418 points. Redwood was second at 318 to edge Archie Williams (311) for runner-up honors. Terra Linda (262) was fourth followed by Marin Catholic (210), Novato (202), San Marin (153), Branson (95) and San Rafael (92)

Tam started the day with a convincing win in the 200-yard medley relay, clocking a time of 1 minute, 51.35 seconds. Relay members were Everage, Annika Hakes, Sophia Uhlhorn-Thornton and Laurel Philp.

But what really set the tone for the Hawks was the 17 points they earned with the second-place finish in diving by Natalie Dean.

Another key team member for the Hawks was Uhlhorn-Thornton, who missed last year’s league finals due to an injury. She returned this season to win the 100 fly in 1:00.61 on Saturday, bettering her time from the prelims by more than a second.

“Almost every single girl had a best time (Friday) and they held on for today,” said Murphy. “We preached this day after day — know that you’re going to swim fast and you have to come back and repeat it.”

Marin Catholic junior Esme Quay won the 50 free in 23.91 and took the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.90. Redwood sophomore Avery Gunst dominated the distance free events, winning the 200 in 1:58.71 and the 500 in 5:28.79.

The MCAL finals were held at Redwood due to a scheduling snafu. The meet typically takes place at the state-of-the-art pool on the College of Marin Indian Valley campus, which staged a diving event this weekend. According to Redwood coach Fred Ferroggiaro, the league has already locked into dates at the Novato facility for the next two years.