By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Sitka High swimmers dove into the season with a strong showing against a variety of teams from across Southeast at a meet in Petersburg over the weekend.
After the diminished 2020 swim season, the Wolves were happy to be back in competition.
“It was so weird to be back to normal after not being normal for so long. But it was so much fun, I’m really grateful we got to go,” Sitka High senior Razie Guillory told the Sentinel at swim practice on Monday.
The veteran swimmer competed in the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays. Individually, Guillory took second place in the 200 free in 2:06 and third place in the 100 free in 58 seconds. Kanen Alley took 11th in the 100 freestyle.
“I had fun, and that was the most important part,” Guillory said. “My 100 freestyles were fun, 200 free was fun, our relay was fun – we’ll get there.”
The Sitka High swim team poses for a shot early in the season in Sitka. In the back row from the left stand Lew Schumejda, Ben Turner, Razie Guillory, Sam Jones, Vanya Dubiaha, David Davis, Matt Rice and Brandon Stevens. In the front are coach Chance Grey, Henrey Ward, Meridedi Morrison, Kai Davis, Jaden Costelo, Kanen Alley, Emma Gassman and coaches Tracie Harang and Meghan Devine. Not pictured is Kelcey Simic. (Photo provided by Tracie Harang)
After opportunities for inter-squad competition were limited last year, junior Emma Gassman also enjoyed the chance to swim against a full pool of athletes.
“It was really exciting for me to see all of my friends in other cities and towns… Getting a chance to race when you have more than one person to race against… It was pretty sad but it’s pretty exciting that we got to have a semi-normal year this year,” Gassman said.
She took first place in the 100 backstroke in 1:04 and second place in the 200 yard butterfly, also in 1:04. She was also in the 200 medley and freestyle relays.
In the 200 freestyle relay, Sitka’s girls took second in 1:57, falling to Thunder Mountain by ten seconds. Gassman and Guillory were joined by Meriedi Morrison and Kanen Alley in that race and also in the 200 medley relay, where they were fourth in 2:12.
Guillory said the meet was an uphill fight for the small Sitka team.
“We only have five girls so it’s really tough for us this year,” she said.
Gassman said that as the season wears on the team should focus on improving starts and turns.
“Just to pick it apart a little bit, I think our starts could use a little work, and maybe some turns. We all need some work on our turns but I think with some hard work we’ll get there,” she said.
Guillory agreed. “Our starts and turns have been really rough this year, just because we haven’t raced in so long.”
“I think the only thing we don’t need to work on is always cheering for each other,” Gassman said.
Guillory said the Lady Wolves are good at that.
“At the end of every Sitka lane there’s like four people on deck and we’re so loud. We’re the loudest team on deck,” she said.
Rounding out the girls results, Kanen Alley took tenth in the 50 free in 29.25, followed by Meriedi Morrison in 15th place.
After such a long stretch without much serious competition, assistant coach Meghan Devine was happy with the results of the meet.
“The kids were really hyped up. Just to be able to race again was an amazing thing… Amazing, considering that we haven’t had a real meet in two years, we had tons of best times,” Devine said.
Coach Tracie Harang said she wants to push each athlete to work their hardest this year.
“My main goal is to have each swimmer be the best athlete they can be, and where they place in region and state is all going to fall into the work that we do here at practice and them improving on details, improving on working hard in practice, all of those little things,” Harang said.
On the boys side of the pool, sophomore Jaden Costelo was happy for the chance to compete.
“It was pretty fun,” Costelo said. “A lot of adrenaline competing and we got to see some people we used to swim with a long time ago from other places. It was nice seeing them again… They were pretty nerve-wracking because all the other people were way bigger than us and way faster, but I just swam my hardest, and everyone swam their hardest. It wasn’t bad, it was pretty good.”
He took fourth place in the 50-yard freestyle sprint in 24.39 and fourth again in the 100 breaststroke in 1:09. Vanya Dubiaha was right behind Costelo in the 50, finishing fifth in 24.43. David Davis took 15th in the 50, followed immediately by Henrey Ward. Costelo swam in the 200 freestyle and medley relays as well.
In the 200 free relay, a Sitka boys team of Costelo, Matt Rice, Vanya Dubiaha and Brandon Stevens finished third in 1:38. Rice, Costelo, Stevens and Ben Turner claimed fourteen the 200 medley relay in 1:51.
Not everything went smoothly in the boys relays, however. As freshman Lew Schumejda dove into his leg of the 400 free relay, his goggles broke.
“Oh crap… I tried to ignore it, just keep on going,” he recalled. “It wasn’t that bad but it was definitely uncomfortable.”
He finished his 100-yard leg of the race and Sitka took fifth place in the event in 4:31. Schumejda swam the long relay with Henrey Ward, Kal Davis and Ben Turner.
“Our boys 400 relay, the energy in it was really good,” Devine said. “It was the last event of the meet entirely, and sometimes you get that slow, tired pace but they were up and ready for it.”
The Wolves have another two weeks to practice for their next meet, which will be in Sitka the first weekend of October.
