By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
Recently retired Sitka High swim coach Ben Adams’ 2005 Baranof Barracuda Swim Club record in the 200 free of 1:52.62 will be taken down from the Blatchley Pool wall – Sitka High freshman Tytan Frawley, 14, hit a 1:50.64 to win his final at the 2019 Alaska Age Group Championships in Anchorage last weekend.
“He just had some really great swims,” BBSC coach Kevin Knox said. “He barely got out-touched a couple times, several of his second and third places were down to the fingernail, either he came up on somebody or somebody just came up on him at the end… his races were all very, very close.”
Baranof Barracuda Swim Club medal winners from the 2019 Alaska Age Group Championships in Anchorage are, front row from left, Emma Gassman, Rhett Walker and Zachary Martens. Back row, from left, are Matthew Rice, Coach Kevin Knox, and Samuel Jones. Not pictured are Tytan Frawley and Mia Turner. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe)
Frawley also swam the 50 free (1st 23.12), 100 free (2nd 51.39), 500 free (1st 5:07.40), 100 back (3rd 58.98), 200 back (3rd 2:11.32), and 200 IM (2nd 2:06.65).
Blatchley Middle School eighth grader Emma Gassman, 14, swam the 200 fly (1st 2:19.66), 200 free (2nd 2:02.55), 500 free (3rd 5:36.36), 100 back (4th 1:04.48), 100 fly (2nd 1:03.54), 200 IM (4th 2:21.41), and 400 IM (3rd 4:58.56).
Gassman’s 200 fly qualified her for the Northwest Regional Age Groups in Seattle in March.
“That was pretty big time for her to get down to that level,” Knox said. “She hasn’t been there before, just getting to that level from a qualifying standpoint is pretty big. Anything that she didn’t win or get second-place in, she was very close to getting that top position as well. It was just a very exciting weekend of racing, everybody was performing well up there.”
Gassman said she liked the 200 because she beat other swimmers by a lot and dropped time.
“The 200 is not for me because I have done it for so long,” she said. “Most people are afraid of it but I like it. For the first 50 you kind of just lay back and go easy and then just kind of cruise until the last 75, then you sprint and try to keep it together.”
Keet Gooshi Heen fourth grader Rhett Walker, 9, swam the 50 free (8th 34.86), 100 free (11th 1:19.91), 200 free (6th 2:43.13), 500 free (5th 7:27.32), 100 breast (5th 1:38.88), 100 fly and 200 IM (DQs).
“I am most happy with the 500 free because I dropped a bunch of time,” Walker said. “But I’m also kind of angry because my time was a fraction of a second off the junior olympic qualifying time. I really like the 500 because I’m a long-distance guy. I’m not very interested in the sprints but I’m a long-distance guy and a quiet kind of person. My new rival is Andy Zane from the Kodiak Kingfishers.”
Walker and classmate Zachary Martens were the only 9-year-olds swimming against 10-year-old competitors.
“I wasn’t scared,” Martens said. “It kind of took a long time for them to get it started and I got so nervous that I wasn’t going to win it but I came out in the top three. I like a lot of things about the 500, it’s harder to win because it is really long distance and it is a lot harder than it looks.”
Martens’ swims were 100 free (10th 1:18.50), 500 free (3rd 7:09.84), 100 back (6th 1:30.17), 50 breast (2nd 44.31), 100 breast (3rd 1:36.12), 100 IM (6th 1:27.76), and 200 IM (6th 3:03.18).
Home-schooled eighth grader Samuel Jones, 14, swam the 50 free (18th 27.86), 100 free (15th 59.71), 200 free (10th 2:08.85), 500 free (9th 5:40.76), 100 back (DQ), 200 IM (7th 2:23.15), and 400 IM (6th 5:12.54).
BMS eighth-grader Matthew Rice, 14, swam the 50 free (7th 25.06), 100 free (4th 53.57), 200 free (3rd 1:53.79), 500 free (4th 5:27.10), 100 back (5th 1:01.90), 200 back (5th 2:22.38), and 400 IM (DQ).
KGH fifth-grader Mia Turner, 11, swam the 50 free (14th 31.32), 500 free (8th 7:03.72, 50 back (DQ), 100 back (13th 1:23.69), 50 breast (10th 41.90), 100 breast (14th 1:33.05), and 100 IM (15th 1:23.02).
Assistant swim coach Tabitha Frawley took three BBSC athletes south to the 43rd Annual Washington Open, hosted by Valley Aquatics in Federal Way, Washington, in January.
The four-day swim meet featured nearly 1,300 swimmers representing 80 swim clubs from Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
Sitka High School junior Kai Frawley, 16, sophomore Grace Harang, 16, and freshman T. Frawley, 14, faced their toughest competition since the Alaska School Activities Association state swim and dive championships in Anchorage on Nov. 2-4, 2018.
BBSC’s Grace Harang, seated, swam at the Washington Open Senior Age Groups at the end of January, the largest meet in the Northwest. Looking on are Sophia Schwantes and Emma Gassman. Harang and Schwantes will swim in the Oregon XII Region Championships on February 28 - March 3 at Beaverton, Oregon. (Sentinel Photo by Klas Stolpe)
K. Frawley swam four events including a best time in the 50 free (moving up 35 places), a 102.39 in the 100 free (8 places higher); a 1:16.97 in the 100 Breast and a 2:50.38 in the 200 Breast; T. Frawley swam the 200 IM in 2:11.00, 100 Free in 51.67, 500 Free in 5:07.33, and got a best time in the 100 Back with a time of 1:02.64, and disqualified in the 200 Free due to a false start. Harang earned best times in the 200 IM (2:16.81), 50 Free (25.85), 100 Free (55.76), and 100 Breast (1:10.07).
According to coach Frawley, her best finish was in the 100 Fly (1:01.73) where she dropped over 10 seconds and improved her ranking 275 places (414th to 139th seed). She finished her 500 Free in a time of 5:32.47.
“It was the biggest meet I had ever been to in my whole life,” Harang said. “The pool was all underground, there were three pools, it was so crowded, it was like a war zone in the warm-up and cool-down pool. I called it ‘the battle.’ It was actually pretty fun. I met some cool new people and lots of teams to look at and mascots. I performed pretty well, not all best times but I didn’t expect to with the amount of practice I had prior. I actually didn’t feel threatened. Some of my teammates talked about how claustrophobic they felt and scared going into the throng of kids. I wasn’t at all and I am considering swimming in college.”
Some members of the BBSC will travel to the Oregon Senior Championships at the end of February. Most of the club swimmers will travel to the Southeast Championships in Juneau the first weekend of April and the Junior Olympics Championships in Anchorage at the end of April.
Dues and fund-raising support the BBSC. Swimmers and their families pay for travel. Donations can be made by contacting BBSC board members via the club’s website.
