Kentridge’s Davies overcomes injury to make state

After missing the first two meets of the season while recovering from sports hernia surgery, making it to the Class 4A high school state swim meet is an accomplishment for Kentridge junior Jake Davies.

Davies, 17, was out of swimming for about a month after the November surgery.

“I think my times are still suffering from that,” he said. “It has been a pretty interesting season. I wasn’t expecting it to go the way it has.”

Davies was anxious to get back in the pool and didn’t want to miss his junior year, which he said could be crucial in his quest to swim in college.

“It was tough but he made it through,” Kentridge coach Michael Dobner said.

Dobner said Davies was not happy missing the first part of the season but helped with the team while he couldn’t swim.

Shortly after his return, Davies qualified for state. He will compete in the 200-yard intermediate medley and the 100 breaststroke, as well as on the 200-medley relay and the 400-freestyle relay at the state meet Feb. 19-20 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Last year, he competed in four events at state.

“I am really excited for our whole team to do well,” Davies said. ” I think this is a pretty quick relay with a lot of hard-working kids. I think we can do really well.”

Last weekend, Davies competed in the West Central District III 4A meet at the Curtis Aquatic Center in University Place. He took fifth place in 200 IM and sixth place in the 100 breaststroke.

“I didn’t do as well as I hoped to do,” he said.

The 200-medley relay team took third at districts. Davies swam backstroke, senior Michael Smith the breaststroke, freshman Nolan Cleary swam butterfly and senior Hayden Huber finished up the race with freestyle.

The 400-freestyle relay team, made up of junior Sean Gilman, Cleary, freshman Timothy Woo and Davies, placed fifth.

Kentridge took fifth overall in the meet.

Davies said he looks forward to seeing how the freestyle relay team does at state.

“Last year, we were knocked out of top heat by .01 (seconds), so we didn’t get to stand at the podium despite our finals time being faster than the team that knocked us out,” he said. “This year, I would like to see if we can make the top heat.”

He said it could be a challenge as some of the top freestyle swimmers from last season are no longer on the team.

Davies said he would also like to improve the times in his individual events.

“I know I really need to make important drops this year if I want to move on to the college level,” he said.

Davies said his friend and former teammate at Kentridge, Chase Bublitz, who now swims for the University of Minnesota, inspired Davies to pursue swimming in college.

“I grew up living across the street from him,” he said. “He kind of got me really excited about it. It is cool to see someone work so hard to get where he is now.”

Davies, who started swimming in second-grade, doesn’t have his heart set on a particular college but said he would like to stay in the Pacific Northwest.