By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Club swimmers from across the region converged on Juneau for the regional championship meet over the weekend, where a number of Sitka athletes notched top-tier times amid tight competition. Out of six teams present, the Baranof Barracudas earned third place.
The Baranof Barracudas swim team poses as a group at the Southeast Championship swim meet, this weekend in Juneau. The Barracudas took third place out of six teams. (Photo provided by Kevin Knox)
With three dozen young swimmers and three masters in the water, Barracudas competed in a cumulative 328 events.
While many of those at the meet were experienced competitors, the Southeast Championship was the first-ever travel meet for 8-year-old Sullivan Semke.
Despite his inexperience, he took second in the 25-yard freestyle in 19.10 seconds and claimed second again in the 25 backstroke in 20.34.
He said the meet was a good experience.
“Most challenging was, it was hard to beat other people,” Sullivan said at practice Wednesday. “And what I liked about it was I just, like, having fun… with my friends.”
He learned to swim only a year and a half ago, and joined the team thanks to some friendly prodding from his sister.
“My sister wanted me to swim. And I really like swimming,” he said.
Looking forward to future meets, Sullivan hopes to improve his 50-yard butterfly. He was disqualified during the event in Juneau, but plans to work on his form in practices to come.
Swimming in an older age bracket, James Nellis, 14, was especially pleased with his performance in short- and mid-distance freestyle events.
“My strongest ones were 50 and 100 free… my tempo and just, like, really catching the water went really well,” Nellis said, “and I dropped a lot of time. I went sub-minute on my 100, finally, which I’ve been really working for a long time.” He touched the wall in 59.68 seconds, placing sixth.
In 26.78 seconds, Nellis finished fourth in the 50 free, while in the 200 free he took third in 2:17.
There’s still some room for improvement in his 200 free, he thinks.
“Just getting my 200 free down. That one I have a lot of trouble with… I kind of just fall off at the 100.”
Eleven-year-old Aela McCarthy cut a significant chunk of time from her butterfly race and also improved her freestyle.
“I’d like to improve on kicking more in my freestyle… My 50 fly, I dropped about 10 seconds in, which is a pretty good improvement,” Aela said. “And in my 100 freestyle, I shaved off a few seconds and I got fourth place.”
She took 12th place in the 50 fly in 44.79 seconds and finished the 100 free in 1:19, taking 16th place. Moving forward, she hopes to improve her butterfly kick form and wants to work on her individual medley, too.
“I really want to keep working on my 100 IM, because that one has all the strokes in it, and it can get kind of tiring after a while,” Aela said.
In that event at the regional meet she took 14th place in 1:41.
In their respective age groups, Evi Rice, Zach Martens, Taryn Fleming and Mia Turner scored the second most points overall.
Rice claimed first place in the 1,650 yard freestyle in 25:34, in the 100 breaststroke in 1:23, the 200 breast in 3:06 and 200 butterfly in 4:06. She was second in total points among 11- and 12-year-old swimmers. In the 13- and 14-year-old class Zach Martens swept the first place spots in the 1,650 in 18:13, in the 100 breast in 1:10, in the 200 breast in 2:27 and the 200 fly in 2:20.
BBSC coach Kevin Knox said Martens’ competition with Parker Hagan, a top swimmer from Ketchikan, were highlights of the meet.
“Their 400 IM and their 500 free were less than a second apart in their finishes,” said Knox. “Long events, just the entire time just battling it out. They just made it super, super exciting.”
In the 500 free, Taryn Fleming took first in 6:02 and claimed second in the 100 back in 1:08. Mia Turner took first in the 50 free in 27.05 seconds, in the 100 free in 59.50 seconds, and in the 100 back in 1:08.
Speaking of the swimmers who took the second place high point award, Knox said “all four of them had some really fabulous races where they were neck and neck with the person that was either in first or third.”
With the Alaska Swimming State Championships – formerly the Junior Olympics meet – coming up at the end of the month, the coach said 11 swimmers are committed, and three more are working to attend the challenging meet.
