Sequim swimmers keep upping their ranks at the state level.

Two girls scored higher than last year while a relay team with plenty of individual talent provided a lot of hope for the Wolves in the future on Nov. 14-15 in the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

Seniors Dani Barrow and Emily Van Dyken went up in the rankings from last year with both girls finishing 22nd overall in 2013.

This year, Barrow swam a 2:28.65 preliminary time to qualify for the second day of events. She swam a 2:26.66 finals to finish 15th. Her season’s best was two weeks ago at districts (2:24.47) but she improved greatly on last year’s state swim going 2:35.81 in the preliminaries.

“She’s happy and disappointed,” head coach Anita Benitez said. “She wanted to get better than a 2:24 but she couldn’t top her districts time. It’s a really cold pool for everyone.”

Van Dyken dove to finish 20th scoring 101.20 in the preliminaries and 149.15 in the semifinals. Last year she failed to make the first cut scoring 93.35.

The 200 medley relay of Barrow, Jessica Craig, Sydnee Linnane and Victoria Fitzpatrick finished 22nd with a time of 2:11.79, just over 3 seconds off their best time of the season.

Linnane, a freshman, swam the 100 backstroke for a 19th place finish at 109.59, which was 0.21 of a second off her best season’s time. Barrow, who qualified for all swimming events at districts, took 21st in the 500 freestyle swimming 6:02.68, about 5 seconds off her season’s best.

This year’s team was the best showing for the Wolves since 2007. “It went really well,” said Benitez.

“The difference was we got to take a bigger contingency rather than just two girls like last year.”

She took a relay team of alternates this year to take in the experience, too.

“The girls who got to go, got to see what it’s like and not feel scared out of their wits when they make state next year. It can be very intimidating,” she said.

Looking to the offseason and next season, Benitez said some girls will join a club, swim on their own and/or do other sports.

“It was a good year and every year is a building year,” she said. “We’ve done better progressively every year since I’ve been here. We’re coming back with at least 18-20 girls hopefully.”