Jack Roberts wins regional swim championship, earns spot in state competition

The Wrangell High School swim team returned from Juneau last weekend with plenty of personal bests and one regional champion heading to state.

Junior Jack Roberts won the regional championship in the 100-yard freestyle and will be heading to the state competition in Anchorage this weekend. He also won third place in the individual medley. Each heat was a personal best for the athlete.

“Jack had phenomenal races this weekend,” said head coach Jamie Roberts. “He dropped almost seven seconds off his 200-yard individual medley, which is a lot of time for that race. … He’s the first regional champion since I have been coaching.”

Coach Roberts emphasized the difficulty of reaching state in swimming, with only 16 swimmers per event earning the opportunity to compete at state. “That (regionals) takes up four of the 16 spots,” she said. “The remaining 12 spots go to the next 12 fastest swimmers from the entire state based on their time they swam in finals at the regional championships.”

Out of 11 races Wrangell swimmers competed in, eight personal bests were achieved and the relay team comprised of Max Lloyd, Jack Roberts, Carter Hammer and Nate Rooney had two bests.

“All their efforts in practice really came together this weekend,” Jamie Roberts said. “The relay team had their best swims of the season. Alisha (Armstrong) achieved her goal of dropping below 31 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle.”

Results

Alisha Armstrong: 50-yard freestyle, 30.98 (personal best) – 14th place; 100-yard backstroke, 1:21.33 (personal best) – 11th place

Carter Hammer: 50-yard freestyle, 34.06 (prelims) – 16th place

Jack Roberts: 100-yard freestyle, 49.97 (prelims, personal best), 49.33 (finals, personal best) – regional champion first place; 200-yard individual medley, 2:06.78 (prelims, personal best); 2:03.66 (finals, personal best) - third place

Max Lloyd: 50-yard freestyle, 27.23 (prelims, personal best); 27.42 (finals) – seventh place

Nate Rooney: 50-yard freestyle, 27.60 (prelims); 27.63 (finals) – eighth place; 500-yard freestyle, 6:28.52 (personal best) – ninth place

Men’s 200-yard medley relay, (Lloyd, Roberts, Hammer, Rooney) 2:08.78 (team best)

Men’s 200-yard freestyle relay, (Roberts, Lloyd, Hammer, Rooney) 1:49.33 (team best)