Chase Bublitz was in fourth grade the last time the Kentridge High boys swim team lost a South Puget Sound League North Division dual meet.
Now a Kentridge freshman, Bublitz wasn’t about to let that unbeaten streak end Tuesday afternoon against Mount Rainier.
Behind its vaunted one-two punch of Bublitz and senior Cameron Whiting, the Chargers turned back Mount Rainier 104-82 in a meet that in all likelihood decided the league champion. Kentridge moved to 7-0 for the season with only Auburn remaining on the schedule.
Mount Rainier has dominated the Class 3A Seamount League for most of the last decade. The Rams (6-1) have hardly missed a beat since moving into the SPSL North. On Tuesday, however, the Rams couldn’t contain the Bublitz-led Chargers.
The Kentridge freshman won the 50 free (22.41), 100 free (49.20) and swam a leg on the Chargers’ medley relay and 400 relay teams.
“Our coach, Erin (Schulze), from the first day of practice, she was saying, ‘We’re going to beat Mount Rainier,’” Bublitz said. “The last time Kentridge lost a (league) meet, I was in the fourth grade.”
Bublitz also established a new personal best in the 50 free.
Combined with Whiting, a senior who won the 500 free (4:56.26) and also was on two of Kentridge’s winning relay teams, the Chargers could not be stopped.
“They’re incredible,” Schulze said about the Bublitz-Whiting combination. “I’ve known both of them for a while because they swim for the club team I coach. They push each other. It’s great to see that kind of competition on the same team. But they also have a very brotherly competition with each other.”
With the win, Kentridge’s unbeaten run in SPSL North meets reached 46 straight.
Yet, the victory wasn’t all about the Bublitz-Whiting tandem.
Dennis Lui also delivered in the 100 backstroke, winning with a time of 1:01.58. Meanwhile, senior diver Matt Drui established a new personal best in a six-dive meet with a score of 209.55.
The meet against Mount Rainier had been circled on Kentridge’s calendar since before the season began.
“It was huge. This is the meet we’ve been looking for all season,” Whiting said. “We were training for this. This was a big one. We didn’t know how it would turn out.”
Schulze agreed.
“Mount Rainier had been dominating in the 3A for a long time,” Schulze explained. “Now they’re here with us. Good teams bring out good swims. I definitely amped it up in their minds, that goes without saying. Mount Rainier hasn’t lost a league title in five years and neither have we. I told them, it was going to be a hurricane.”
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