Olympia freshman Tony Ponomarev qualifies for 4A state swimming finals in two events

Coming into Friday’s preliminary round of the Class 4A state swimming and diving meet, Olympia High School freshman Anthony Ponomarev was ranked fourth in the 200-yard individual medley and sixth in the 100 free.

After the prelims, Ponomarev qualified for the finals exactly where he entered the meet. He was fourth in the 200 IM with a time of one minute, 55.71 seconds and sixth in the 100 free at 47.65 seconds.

Though he may not have moved up or down, Ponomarev was pleased with his performance — at least in one of the events.

“I was really happy with my 200 IM, because I feel like I can go way faster, especially tomorrow,” Ponomarev said. “My 100 free wasn’t ideal, but I still have tomorrow to see what I can do.”

And he already had a plan to improve his time.

“I’m going to go out way faster than I did in the 100 free,” he said. “I felt like my first 50 was really lacking. And in the 200 IM, I just want to stay tighter throughout the whole race and see where it goes from there.”

Ponomarev would like to crack the top three at least one event in tomorrow’s finals, but came into the meet with realistic expectations after missing several practices due to the recent snow.

Since the big storm hit a week ago, Ponomarev has only practiced with his school team once, and another time on his own.

“My swims have been doing fine, so I guess it wasn’t too major,” he said. “I feel like a lot of it was just endurance. My speed is still there, but my endurance wasn’t and I think that was what the problem was.”

Ponomarev was the only swimmer from a Thurston County school to qualify for the finals in any classification.