These Wolves just keep getting quicker.
At the Ketchikan Invitational on Sept. 20-21, Wrangell swimmers claimed 14 new personal-best times — 12 at the individual level and two by the relay teams. The trend pleased head coach Jamie Roberts, who at the start of the season told the Sentinel that incremental improvement is her No. 1 priority for the 2024 swimmers.
Roberts said swimmers often see quick improvement after the first month of practice as their endurance levels reacclimate to in-season swimming. But as the team wraps up its second month of practice, their head coach attributes the barrage of personal bests to the swimmers’ focus on starts and turns.
“They’ve been doing many repeats of starts and turns in practice. Overall, the team showed good improvement on both these things,” Roberts said.
Wrangell’s girls team finished the Sept. 21 event on the podium with a score of 167, beating rivals Craig, Petersburg and Sitka. Juneau-Douglas won the meet handedly and Ketchikan finished in second.
The Ketchikan Invitational was a two-day event, with each day organized as a separate meet. This allowed swimmers to compete in one event on Friday and a different one on Saturday if they had conflicting interests.
Andrei Bardin-Siekawitch was a standout swimmer for Wrangell on both days, posting personal-best times in three of the four events he competed in. This is the second week in a row that Bardin-Siekawitch claimed new personal-best times. Bardin-Siekawitch also finished fifth in the boys 500-yard freestyle.
Senior captain Anika Herman improved both her 500-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke times from the previous week’s meet in Petersburg. In just the week, Herman cut 10 seconds off her 100-yard freestyle time.
Freshmen Ellee Voltz and Amura Roher continued their good run of form with three personal-best times between the two swimmers.
Kalee Herman — the younger sister of Anika — is a two-sport athlete, competing in cross-country and swim. When faced with the scheduling conflict she opted against the muddy cross-country trails of a Juneau meet for the swim meet held in Ketchikan. Her decision proved beneficial, and she arrived back in Wrangell with a new personal-best time in the 100-yard freestyle of 1:23.75.
The relay teams maintained their positive form at the Ketchikan competition. On Sept. 20, the girls 200-yard medley team consisted of Johanna Sanford (who also finished in eighth out of 14 swimmers in the 50-yard freestyle), Maddy Davies and the two Herman sisters. The relay team posted Wrangell’s fasted girls 200-yard medley time of the year of 2:42.45. Sanford, Roher, Voltz and Kalee Herman brought more success on the freestyle relay front. The four swimmers finished with a time of 2:32.29 in the girls 200-yard freestyle, again Wrangell’s fastest 200-yard freestyle relay of the year.
Next, the team will travel for the Juneau Invitational. This second-to-last regular season meet of the year is scheduled for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 4 and 5.
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