A year after making waves at the state meet, Steve Sholdra and the rest of the Renton boys swim and dive team is looking to take another step forward as they move to 2A.

“We should have more qualifiers for districts and hopefully more qualifiers for state,” said Renton coach Diane Pavelin.

While it will be hard to top last season’s performance, Sholdra is up to the task. The junior became the first Renton swimmer to qualify and place at state in 15 years last season.

And he didn’t make some passing impression. Sholdra took second in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of four minutes, 42.06 seconds.

It was a ground-breaking season for Sholdra, as he broke a 36-year-old school record in the 500 and won a district title on the way to his runner-up finish at state.

This year the Indians dropped to 2A, which should provide a chance for more of Sholdra’s teammates to join him at state.

This year in the 2A ranks at state the top returning time in the 500 is 5:02.9 by Sehome sophomore Andy Small.

Junior Aslan DaVault is the only other returning state competitor on the team. DaVault and Sholdra both swam on Renton’s 200 medley relay that took 17th.

DaVault and Sholdra are just the start of Renton’s juniors. More than three quarters of the 18-person team is juniors.

“We have a really big junior class,” Sholdra said. “So the team we’re with right now is the one we’re going to be with for a long time.”

Pavelin is happy with the team’s move to 2A since it fits her team better.

“Size-wise and time-wise, 2A is where we belong,” she said. “It’s nice to be able to tell the kids that they could go to state.”

The Renton girls team took 33rd this fall in its first crack at 2A. It was the first time the girls team has scored points at a state meet in around 13 years.