By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
Last season at the Alaska School Activities Association State Swim & Dive Championships the Sitka High girls won more gold medals (four) than any other team, yet placed third among the 20 schools competing.
Why?
Numbers.
“We just don’t have the number of swimmers that some of the larger schools do,” Sitka coach Ben Adams said. “Last year we won more events than anyone, but we didn’t have kids finishing fifth, sixth or seventh and scoring a handful of points here and there. High schools like Dimond have kids in every finals heat.”
Three-time defending state champion Dimond High School has 29 athletes competing in this State meet.
“Maybe they don’t win all events but they score points that add up in huge ways,” Adams said. “We try to beat their swimmers in preliminaries to knock them out of the final rounds and then on Saturday place higher… other teams will also be doing the same and diluting their strength.”
The Sitka Wolves state swim team are, top row, from left, junior Thomas Bailey, freshman Wesley Urias, coach Ben Adams, and freshman Tytan Frawley. Middle row, from left, are senior Jessica Davis, senior JD Gagner, and senior Kyleigh McArthur. Front row, from left, are junior Kai Frawley, sophomore Grace Harang, senior Molly Blackmon, and sophomore Sophia Schwantes.
The Sitka state swim qualifiers enjoy a final swim practice Wednesday at the Blatchley Pool. (Sentinel Photos by Klas Stolpe)
The Sitka girls made a historic swim through last weekend’s Region V Southeast Championships, capturing every individual and relay gold medal. Plus the boys got a first place and some top finishes that would bode well at State.
The Wolves would love to repeat that performance this weekend.
In theory, they are the favorites in four races.
Senior Jessica Davis is the three-time defending State champion in the backstroke, and a fourth time is a strong possibility as she won Regjons and is seeded 2nd for the State meet.
She won the fly at Regions this season and is seeded 5th at State. She won the State fly two seasons ago. Last season she won the State 200 IM but did not swim that event at Regions this year.
Davis is also a part of the Wolves’ two-time defending State champion 200 free relay team. Her strong back stroke would presumably keep her in the 200 IM relay and either the 200 or 400 free relays. The Wolves swept the Region relays.
Teams usually put eight names into each four-person relay at their respective Region championships and are allowed to switch swimmers among those eight for the State championships.
“That is based on what we want to do at Regions,” Adams said. “Which is win them all and not one by a landslide and maybe barely win a third. We spread out the talent in those three relays at Regions and now we are going to focus on two of them at State and one that still has some solid swimmers in it.”
Swimmers are allowed four events at state, either two individual swims and two relays, or one individual swim and three relays.
Individual Region winners swim those same events at State unless scratched and submitted into relay teams they were also listed on in Regions.
Senior Kyleigh McArthur won the 50 and 100 free at Regions and was on the winning 200 IM and 200 free relays.
Coaches scratched McArthur from the State 100 free, an event she was seeded 12th in for the State meet, meaning she will still compete in the State 50 free, seeded 10th, and presumably in the 200 IM and 200 free relays and be available for the 400 free relay, all of which she was listed on at Regionals.
Relays are double team points and valuable for earning a high team placing.
Seniors Davis, McArthur, and Molly Blackmon, junior Kai Frawley, and sophomores Sophia Schwantes and Grace Harang are listed on the 200 medley, 200 free, and 400 free relays.
“It is going to be tough,” Adams said. “But if we are going to do it, the time is now. We have the chance to win multiple relay and individual events.”
Harang broke the Wolves’ 500 free record last weekend in her Regjon title, and is seeded 2nd at State. Davis held the record previously. Harang also has a strong possibility to break Sitka’s 200 IM record, set by Davis last season, and is seeded 3rd for State.
Blackmon is the 200 free Region champ and seeded 6th at State. She is also seeded 6th in the back.
Schwantes won the Region 100 breast title and is seeded 7th at State, and seeded 12th in the 100 fly.
For the Wolves’ boys, senior Jacob Gagner, a Region champ in the 200 IM, is seeded 13th, and freshman Tytan Frawley is 14th. Frawley is seeded 4th in the State 500 free and Gagner is seeded 14 in the State 100 fly.
A disciplinary action at Regions resulted in three Sitka boys team members being suspended. That process leaves Gagner and Frawley, joined by junior Thomas Bailey, and freshman Urias Wesley as the Wolves’ 5th seeded State 400 free relay team.
The Wolves arrived back in Sitka from Regions on Sunday night. They swam Monday afternoon, did light dry land workouts Tuesday morning and swam Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon. They will be in Anchorage’s Bartlett High School pool briefly today.
“They do small bursts of speed,” Adams said. “They break down their races in distances and rest. They don’t get to know what their times are or how fast they’re going. They just have to try and feel the water and focus on what they are doing and not what their time is. Their heart rates aren’t getting up that high, it is mostly active recovery. These kids are at the point where they are doing everything right. They have too much energy right now, way too much, they don’t know what to do with it…”
That is what the State championships are for, and action begins at the Bartlett Pool with preliminary events on Friday and finals on Saturday.
