Wrangell High swimmers open season in Petersburg meet

The results from Petersburg are in and head coach Jamie Roberts is feeling good.

The Wolves competed in the Petersburg Invitational Swim Meet on Sept. 6-7. Wrangell swimmers raced against Southeast rivals Ketchikan, Petersburg, Sitka, Juneau and Craig, and boasted impressive times considering it was the first meet of the season.

By structuring the two-day competition as two separate meets - one on Friday and one on Saturday - swimmers were able to compete in different events on both days.

Amura Roher, Andrei Bardin-Siekawitch, Johanna Sanford, Maddy Davies and Peter Houser all boarded the flight back to Wrangell with new personal-best times, a feat the Roberts is especially proud of.

"This is a big deal for the returning athletes," Roberts said, alluding to Bardin-Siekawitch. "Typically, their personal bests are posted near the end of the season once they've had three months of practices."

Of the 28 individual events in which the team competed, Wrangell swimmers achieved eight personal-best times.

Freshmen swimmers made an impact as well, and Roberts was impressed with the class of 2028's first competitive outing in the water. While freshmen cannot compare their recent scores to last year's results, both Roher and Houser improved their times in the 24 hours between the Friday and Saturday meets.

"The freshmen swimmers swam well," Roberts said. "Ellee Voltz and Amura Roher had some nice individual swims and contributed to the relays. Houser had a nice time drop from Friday to Saturday in his 100-yard breaststroke."

In the girls 200-yard medley relay, Roberts relied on the same group of four swimmers both days. The relay team, made up of Voltz, Davies, Anika Herman and Johanna Sanford finished with a time of 2:48.15 on the first day and 2:50.96 on the second.

Notably, Herman was also named team captain earlier this season. Herman is the team's sole senior and just one of five returning swimmers. She competed in the 500-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke in Petersburg, finishing with times of 7:37.14 and 1:25.28, respectively.

The girls freestyle relay team was equally consistent across both days. Made up of Sanford, Roher, Voltz and Davies, the 200-yard medley team's best finish came on Friday with a time of 2:48.15.

The Wolves headed to Ketchikan for competition on Sept. 20 and 21, to be followed by a weekend trip to Juneau before heading to Sitka for the last of the regular season meets this year.