South Coast Aquatic Team standout Kevin Waller moved up to the No. 3 ranking in his age group for the mile by placing eighth in the event at the Pacific Northwest Senior Sectionals swim meet last weekend at Federal Way, Wash.

Waller’s time in the 1,500-meter event was 16 minutes, 38.05 seconds, a 45-second improvement over his previous best.

Waller and the other three SCAT members who went to the meet posted a number of other improvements during the event.

Waller placed 11th in both the 800 freestyle, with a new best of 8:47.22, and the 400 freestyle, with a mark of 4:13.80.

Matthew Johnson and James Verger also both had improvements in all their events while swimming primarily against older high schools and collegians. Verger cut 29 seconds off his time in the 1,500 freestyle, finishing in 40th place in 17:38.60.

Rachel Heaney had a best of 27th place in the 800 freestyle during the meet.

“The boys did awesome for their first senior sectional meet,” said SCAT coach Chris Richmond. “Rachel hit a couple of best times, which is very encouraging for us.

“We are treating this as our first meet of the long-course season. We are on the road to a great summer.”

Results for the team members can be found in today’s Community Scoreboard.