Finishing in third place is better than finishing in seventh place. That goes without saying. Except when finishing seventh is harder than finishing third. That’s what Camas senior Lila McGeachy experienced at the 4A state meet last month. McGeachy placed third in the 500-yard freestyle and seventh in the 200 freestyle at the 4A state meet, earning the senior the honor as The Columbian’s All-Region girls swimmer of the year. It was a state meet filled with drama and surprises for McGeachy. “My goal from the beginning of the season was to get third (in the 500 free),” McGeachy said. “So I was working on everything — turns, finishes and pacing for that race — the whole season.

“But after all the district meets, I could tell that it was just going to be an incredibly fast meet. I kind of shifted my mindset a little bit and just focus more on having a good race and not so much on placing.” McGeachy was seeded fifth coming out of the prelim races at state. So to reach her goal of finishing third, she would have to change her approach. “I knew I was just going to have to go out a really, really fast and just try to hang on for dear life,” she said. As the race wound down, McGeachy thought she was in third. But because she was in lane 2, it was difficult to see across the pool.

The top two swimmers in the meet finished under 5 minutes, 2 seconds. McGeachy took third at 5:09.50, almost by surprise. “The girl next to me in lane 3, she had swum a 5:03 before,” McGeachy said. “So it was kind of shocking that no one else got between me and the second-place finisher. I was really happy with it because I really didn’t think I could do that going into the meet.” While she was happy with her third-place showing in the 500 free, McGeachy may have been more proud of just reaching the championship final in the 200 free. “We were literally racing against girls that had gone to the Olympic Trials,” McGeachy said of the 4A 200 free. “In some state meets, you might have the top four swimmers who are really fast. But this race, it was like one through 15 was really fast. I was seeded ninth going into the meet, which was outside of the top eight for the A final. I knew I was going to have to swim my best time to have any shot.”

McGeachy dropped a half-second off her qualifying time to earn the No. 8 spot into the championship or A final, although she did not know it right away. “That whole morning I was like ‘I’m not even going to look at my time when I touch. I don’t want to know,’ ” she said. “And so I didn’t. … I got out of the pool and went into the warm-down pool. And my coach came over and put her hand down into the water. She said ‘Hey, you actually did make into the A final.’ And that was really special for me, even more than the 500.” In the final, McGeachy nearly matched her prelim time and moved up one spot to finish seventh. Her state meet came with the added satisfaction that her senior season did not start as she would have like.

McGeachy suffered a broken hand in a car accident last spring, forcing out of the pool for several months. “I didn’t get cleared to go back in the pool until June, and even then I had to limit the amount of stress I could put on my hand at first,” McGeachy said. “That was really hard.” McGeachy signed to continue her swimming at Seattle University, where she plans to study business. She said she will look back at her four years swimming at Camas fondly, even though having such a large and young team brought challenges.

“It was definitely a busy pool at practices,” she said. “I mean, we had like six to eight girls per lane, which is kind of unheard of. … And having such a young team, I felt like as a senior I had a lot more people leaning on me than I had to lean on when I was younger. “But my coach was really gracious and kind of help me out through that process.” The Rest of the All-Region girls swimming team Paige Dangleis, Hockinson: The senior placed third in the 2A state meet in the 200 individual medley and fourth in the 100 freestyle. Lucy Demaray, Mountain View: The sophomore placed 12th in the 3A state meet in the 200 IM and 15th in the 500 freestyle.

Haley Gunderson, Heritage: The senior was the 3A GSHL swimmer of the year placed 16th at the 3A state meet in 50 free and 100 back. Medea Rusu, Ridgefield: The senior was the 2A state meet runner-up in the 100 backstroke and placed fifth in the 200 freestyle. Karlen Stuart, Woodland: The junior was the 2A GSHL swimmer of the year, placed sixth in 2A state in the 50 free and seventh in the 100 free. Rebecca Yamada, Ridgefield: The senior was the runner-up in the 100 breaststroke at the 2A state meet and also a state-qualifier in the 200 IM.