Swim team prepares for first meet in Petersburg

Meeting five days a week to train, the Wrangell High School swim team is working hard to prepare for their first competition. From August 31 to September 1, they will be in Petersburg for their first meet of the season. Coach Jaime Roberts said that she expects the team will represent themselves, and their school, very well.

"I think the kids will be surprised at how well they do," she said. "One thing that's always different for us is our pool temperature is fairly warm, compared to competitive pools around the state. I don't know if it's just the level of excitement added with a cooler pool temperature tends to make the kids go a little faster."

A big focus for the team during training, Roberts said, was building endurance and teaching stroke mechanics. She said every student on the team who attends the meet will likely compete in at least one event, such as it backstroke, breaststroke, or butterfly. She also said that there were enough girls on the team for them to compete in a relay event at this weekend's meet. In high school swimming, Roberts said, swimmers are limited to two individual events and two relay events.

"For beginner swimmers freestyle and backstroke are where we start," she said.

Wrangell is part of Region V of the Alaska School Activities Association, a region that covers much of Southeast Alaska. According to a

schedule provided by Roberts, the team will be travelling all over the region for their meets this year. Other meets on the schedule are in Sitka,Juneau, Ketchikan, and should the team make it to the state competition, Anchorage.

"I'm not interested in the amount of points we're going to accrue for our team or where we're going to place. This is really about each individual advancing for themselves where they want to go and then having some fun," she said.