The Auburn, Auburn Riverside and Auburn Mountainview girls swimming teams wrapped up their regular seasons on Tuesday at the Auburn Pool, with the Lions taking home best in the city honors for 2010.

Now, however, the real work begins for the Trojans, Lions and Ravens as they head into the South Puget Sound League 4A and 3A meets, Friday and Saturday at the Rogers and Auburn pools, respectively.

For the 4A schools, only individuals who have posted qualifying times are allowed to compete in the league meet, although relay teams are given an automatic berth.

For Riverside, three relay teams, as well as three individuals will compete at the league meet Saturday.

Junior Kate Wallen will swim in the 200-meter free and 100 backstroke. Wallen has already qualified for districts and will consider which event to swim at that meet (Oct. 29-30 at Rogers in Puyallup) in the upcoming weeks.

Fellow junior Payton Gray also moves on to the 200 IM and 50 free.

Senior Lauren Perala rounds out individual swimmer for the Ravens, and will compete in the 100 breast.

In the 200 medley relay, Wallen, Perala, Gray and Karlee Rogers will swim for Riverside.

Rogers, Perala, Maddy Bastrom and Jamie Bye will represent the Ravens in the 200 freestyle relay, and Gray, Bye, Bastrom and Perala will swim in the 400 freestyle relay.

“I’m real happy with the girls,” Raven coach Crystal Jilbert said. “It’s one of those seasons where it’s about personal achievement and bettering ourselves. Every meet we’ve had lots of swimmers break personal records. From a coaching standpoint, it’s fun to watch and be a part of.”

Jilbert said it’s often a challenge getting enough time in the pool, with six teams – three girls swim teams and three boys water polo teams – all vying for time at the Auburn Pool.

“It’s really a nightmare,” Jilbert said. “We only have the pool for an hour, assuming everybody is there on time. It’s not a lot of time to successfully build your skills and your ability. The fact that we’re able to better our times is a compliment to the girls and their work ethic and ability. It’s definitely a challenge.”

Auburn’s Tracy Alexander agrees.

“The biggest obstacle is only getting one hour in the pool a day,” the first year coach said.

In addition to the school’s relay teams, the Trojans will bank on Ragan Smith and Stephanie Nelson to make some noise.

“It’s a building year,” Alexander said. “There are a lot of youngsters that have never swum before. We actually had to teach strokes to some of the girls this year. There are no short cuts. But I feel it’s the beginning of building a good program.”

Alexander said she hoped to get more kids involved in local club teams such as the Sharks, who swim out of the Auburn Pool, or the Valley Aquatics Swim Team, which operates out of the Puyallup and Auburn pools, as well as the King County Aquatic Center and Federal Community Center pools.

“They all show a willingness to learn and all want to work,” Alexander said.

For Auburn Mountainview, the team will look to Elise Duncan, Taylor Lavine, Elizabeth Le and Jessica Nuttall.

At the all-city meet, Nuttall smashed the Mountainview school diving record, scoring a 184.

Schreib said she expected Lavine and Duncan to do well in the 100 and 50 freestyle races at leagues.

“This year we’ve done pretty well,” Schreib said. “We lost to Decatur, who are in our league, by four points. But we just swam horrible. I think the kids were intimidated by the pool (Decatur swims in the cavernous King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way). We shouldn’t have lost that meet.”

The team’s only other losses have come at the hands of Peninsula and Enumclaw, traditional swimming powerhouses.

“The girls are working really hard, they’re coming to practice every day and working really hard,” she said.

The SPSL 3A league meet begins today at 3:30 p.m. at the Auburn Pool. The SPSL 4A league meet is tomorrow at the Rogers Pool.