It's an interesting situation — and it works out just fine for local swimmers.

Inglemoor and Bothell high-school athletes were rivals, but supported each other, as well, at last weekend's 4A state swimming and diving meet at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way.

For example, Claire Thompson of Inglemoor and Tiffany Dang of Bothell went head to head in the B finals of the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke. Dang took ninth and Thompson 10th in the 50 free, and Thompson finished ninth and Dang 12th in the 100 back.

"She's about the same speed as me, so her and I wanted to race hard together, because we knew we could do better than we did in prelims," Thompson said of Dang and herself. "I loved state and it was great to compete against such strong swimmers."

Bothell's Mariah Williamson registered the best local result with an eighth-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle A final in 5 minutes, 7.76 seconds. She also took 14th in the 200-yard freestyle and helped Bothell finish 10th in the 200-yard freestyle relay, which also featured Dang, Raynie Hultgren and Emily Anthony.

Bothell coach Tom Linde said that placing 17th as a team was “a good way to finish up the season.”

Also for Inglemoor, Leeann Yee took 10th in the 100-yard freestyle and was part of the 14th-place 200-yard medley relay (with Thompson, Misha Olynyk and Chelsey Seefeld) and 16th-place 200 free relay (with Olynyk, Seefeld and Liane Lovitt).

"The best part was hearing the team cheering for me behind the block, and that just gave me an extra burst of energy to swim faster, and it worked," Yee said.

In diving, Inglemoor's Lindsay Bowker took 11th with 224.25 points.