Redmond High swimmers reached the medal podium three times on Feb. 20 at the 4A state meet.

Ivan Graham, a sophomore, took third in the 100-yard-butterfly, fourth in the 100-yard breaststroke and swam on the sixth-place 200-yard medley relay with junior Erik Kvietkus and seniors Samuel Jonsson and Jack Markling at the King County Aquatics Center in Federal Way.

Graham’s 100 fly time was 51.02, his 100 breast time was 57.42 and the relay’s time was 1:40.06, which are all new school records.

“I was pretty happy with it. I came in pretty excited and a little bit nervous,” said Graham, who noted that he received support from his older brother, Xavier, who kept in touch via texts from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“It was a pretty big accomplishment. I improved on my times and placed better than I did last year and that’s also pretty nice,” he added. Last year, he placed sixth in both the 100 fly and 200-yard individual medley at state.

Graham earned an All-American consideration time in the 100 breast and bested his prelims marks in both events. His prelims times were 59.17 in the 100 breast and 52.27 in the 100 fly. He also placed first at districts in the 100 breast and 100 fly.

The Mustang said he was motivated and inspired to do well in his individual events and on the relay, which dropped two seconds from its top pre-state time and .89 of a second from its state prelims mark in the final.

All the relayers were fired up for the final, Graham said, and some nerves were present, as well, before they splashed into action and proceeded to drop some splits in their prelim times.

“It’s not bad to be nervous because it shows that you care about your swim,” he said.

Coach Julie Barashkoff said the Mustangs had a great season and finished things off with some stellar swims and a 13th-place team finish at state.

“These swimmers are an extremely united group, and even though this is common for our teams, it always makes me proud to watch how the guys treat every member of the team with respect and friendship,” she said. “This team practiced hard and swam hard at meets, but still had fun with the important things such as the traditional daily team cheer, weekly kickboard awards and pasta feeds.”