WesCo swimming: Are victory laps ahead for Snohomish?

SNOHOMISH — The perfect ending sounds like Mardi Gras, smells like chlorine and looks like three state championships.

Andy Ferguson and Chris Fulton can picture it down to the smallest details: the winner's platform and their respective turns atop it. The first-place medals hanging from two exhausted bodies. The rest of their Snohomish teammates basking in the glow that only a team championship can provide.

They're far enough away to worry and close enough to wonder. Two friends with the same dream. Two individual state champions from the same school. Can they do it? They'll find out soon enough.

"Only nine people per year can say, 'I won an event at the 4A state championship,' " Snohomish coach Rob Serviss said. "That makes you part of a pretty elite group.

"I don't have the words to describe what it would feel like. It would be awesome in the truest sense of the word. It would be beyond special."

Ferguson and Fulton wouldn't be this fast or this close without each other. Ferguson, a senior, concedes there were times when he could have done just a little more. Fulton, a sophomore, concedes he didn't work hard enough until Ferguson taught him what it took.

Serviss just counts on his coaching karma, coaxing Ferguson and Fulton, his Snohomish County version of "The Fast and the Furious," to continue the Panthers' tradition as one of the top teams in the state.

They certainly were last weekend, when Snohomish won the WesCo North Sectional boys swim meet by 147 points over second-place Marysville-Pilchuck. And they were this entire season, for that matter, when Snohomish captured its fifth-consecutive WesCo North dual-meet championship.

Ferguson won the 200-meter freestyle in a time (1 minute, 43.86 seconds) worthy of All-American consideration. He also won the 100 butterfly (53.60) and swam on two winning relays. Fulton won the 50 freestyle (21.81) and the 100 freestyle (47.96), and swam on one winning relay.

Moments like those have been a long time coming. Both grew up at Snohomish's Hal Moe Pool. Both took swimming lessons from Serviss before he was head coach.

"I've been swimming here all my life pretty much," Fulton said.

The similarities don't stop there. Both rank second in Class 4A in their best events: the 200 freestyle for Ferguson and both freestyles for Fulton. Both entered this season with the stated goal of winning a state championship. Both want to improve on their highest state finishes last year: 11th in the 50 freestyle for Fulton and third in the 200 freestyle for Ferguson.

And both are a tad nervous about the state meet at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way on Friday and Saturday.

"I can't stop thinking about it," Ferguson said. "Laying in bed, just thinking it. The state meet. My senior year. This is it."

The Panthers' chances rest largely on their top duo. Serviss said he considers his team among the five favorites. The difference between fifth and first, though, might come from other Snohomish swimmers and how many points they can accrue.

"I don't want to say that I think we have a chance to win a state title because that's saying an awful lot," said Serviss, whose team finished fifth last year. "But we have the talent to get into the top four. And once you get up there, anything can happen.

"Individually, it's difficult but not impossible."

Two more days. That's all that's left until two friends find out if they can write the perfect ending to this pool drama. Two more days until two teammates find out whether they're two state champions.

"We're excited and nervous," Ferguson said. "But we're going there to win."

Rowing Meadowdale

Meadowdale High School senior Justine Lewis could have played college basketball but probably not at the Division I level. With that in mind, she accepted a rowing scholarship this week to the University of Miami, capping an improbable story with a happy ending.

Her grandfather rowed competitively in England, and whenever Lewis went to visit, she appeased him by hopping in the boat. In August, she decided to give competitive rowing a try. She trained for four months, which was all the time it took to draw the attention of college scouts.

She's not rowing these days because she plays forward for the Lynnwood school's top-ranked girls basketball team. But she visited Miami last weekend, fell in love and accepted the scholarship offer on the spot.

"I always did it to make my grandpa happy," Lewis said of rowing. "I almost can't believe it. It's like a dream come true."

Cascade could cash in

The Cascade boys basketball team finished 1-19 last year. Thanks to two wins last week, it entered this week with a chance for the final WesCo North spot in the Northwest 4A District tournament. That's thanks in large part to the Bruins' only starting senior, Andrew Petterson, who scored 45 points and grabbed 22 rebounds in those games.

At 6 feet 6, Petterson always had the height. With a 3.8 grade-point average and 1,140 SAT score, he always had the brains. He just needed the muscle, and he packed on 15 pounds by weight lifting in the offseason. Surrounded by four sophomores in the Bruins' lineup, Petterson has emerged as the South Everett school's most consistent threat, averaging 13 points and seven rebounds a game.

"He's surprised some people in our league," coach Kevin Rohrich aid. "He was a late bloomer, but he's coming on strong. He's the kind of kid you want to have in your basketball program."

Terrace won't look ahead

Yes, Mountlake Terrace boys basketball coach Nalin Sood can't help but be impressed with his team's regular season. The Hawks had two players transfer in and two starters go down with injuries, but they still finished as the top 4A team in WesCo South, winning 14 of their previous 15 games entering this week.

And yes, Sood is "somewhat pleased" with his team's No. 1 seeding for next week's Northwest 4A District tournament. But with the parity in WesCo South this season, he knows Terrace isn't done yet. Case in point: Two years ago, as the No. 1 seed, the Hawks did not make the state tournament.

"We never look ahead to anybody," he said. "That's one of the reasons we've been so successful this year: that old saying of one game at a time. I don't have a clue how districts are going to go. All I know is that it should be a great tournament for fans to watch."

Around the county

• Led by five individual champions — Kelly Kubec at 103 pounds, Lester Brown at 125, Tony Kubec at 135, Matt Leonard at 215 and Clint Osborn at 275 — Lake Stevens won the Region I wrestling tournament last weekend. The Vikings qualified nine wrestlers for the state tournament this weekend.

• Stevens Pass skier Colby Granstrom, a 13-year-old from Lake Stevens, finished 22nd in the slalom and 24th in the giant slalom at the Trofeo Topolino in Italy last week. The international ski event is the equivalent of the Winter Olympics for his age group.

• The Meadowdale boys basketball team clinched its first WesCo South title since 1987 with a win over Everett last week.

• Ryan Conley of Sultan won at 130 pounds in the Class 2A wrestling regional last weekend. He won a state championship last year at 125 pounds. In the 3A meet, the third-place finish of Tesir Al-Hussaini of Lynnwood was the highest of any WesCo wrestler. And in the 4A meet, Cascade's Johnny Gilbertson pinned three opponents and won his other match 19-2 en route to the championship at 112 pounds.

• Jackson High School of Mill Creek finished second in the WesCo South Sectional boys swim meet last weekend behind Peter Mullins' two individual victories. Shorewood of Shoreline won the team title, and Kamiak of Mukilteo finished third.

Greg Bishop: 206-464-3191 or gbishop@seattletimes.com