Crimson Bear swimmers host Juneau Invitational
Over two months have passed since the Juneau-Douglas High School swimming and diving team officially started its season.
And finally, the Crimson Bears will get a chance to showcase their talent in front of a home crowd at the Juneau Invitational on Friday and Saturday at the Augustus G. Brown Swimming Pool.
Every swimming team from Southeast will be present for what will be the last regular season meet before the Region V meet held in Sitka on Nov. 2-3. Friday's meet begins at 6 p.m. and Saturday's action starts at 4:15 p.m.
The Crimson Bears are coming off their most impressive performance of the season last weekend in Anchorage, highlighted by the Juneau boys winning Friday's meet against defending state champion Dimond and a very strong team from Service.
Although the Juneau boys finished second to Service on Saturday, the Crimson Bear boys proved they are one of the top teams in the state and have a legitimate chance at the state title.
They Juneau girls also swam well last week, but were overwhelmed by the defending state champions from Service, who are by far and away the strongest team in the state again this year. The second- and third-place finishes marked first time this season that the Crimson Bear girls had not won a meet where their full varsity squad competed.
But even with all the success the teams have had on the road this year, the Crimson Bears are glad to be coming home.
"I like out pool better. It feels faster," said girls team captain Annie Fox, a senior. "I'm pumped. The adrenaline rush is going to make the swimming great. I think were looking really strong and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some awesome times."
"It's going to be a lot fun," said boys team captain Forrest Preston, also a senior. "I guess it's going to be my last home meet of my swimming career and for some people, who will not be going to regions, it will be their last meet of the season. It's good they get to swim at home."
With up to four entries in individual events and relays, the Crimson Bears will have the luxury of getting all team members a chance to compete in front of the home crowd.
"The entire team will be swimming," head swim coach John Wray said. "Everyone has at least one entry except for a couple kids who have injuries."
The Crimson Bears' depth should put them way ahead of the other schools this week in the final point tally, but Wray says it's not a good standby to judge how the team will do at the region meet.
"We can't use this weekend for what we're going to do at regionals," Wray said. "This weekend, we can have four entries, but at regionals, we can only have two. So we won't have the benefit of scoring with our third and fourth swimmers."
Juneau continued to be well represented in this week's list of top swim times, posting several swimmers in the state's top 20.
For the boys, Jake Kreuzenstein leads the Crimson Bears with top times in four events, including the fourth-best time in the 200-yard freestyle (1 minute, 51.96 seconds), sixth in the 500 free (5:06.08) and ninth in the 200 medley (2:08.20). Preston is ranked in ninth in the 500 free (5:08.95) and 11th in the 200 free (1:54.57) and sophomore Kirk Fishel is fifth in the 100 backstroke (:58.98) and eighth in the 200 individual medley (2:07.62).
The Crimson Bear girls are led by junior Martha Kaiser, who is ranked ninth in the 100 back (1:04.19) and 13th in the 100 free (56.37). Sophomore Lisse Focht is 13th in the 500 free (5:37.84) and 15th in the 200 free (2:04.61. Junior Weather Potdevin has the highest ranking on the team with the seventh-best time in the 500 free (5:34.76).
But the most impressive performances this year has come from freshman Paul Hughes, who stepped up last week and broke the school record in the 100-yard breaststroke. Although he took second behind Dimond's Gilbert Roposa, Hughes' time of 1:00.44 broke Adam Johnson's record set in 1992 and was also good for the second-best time in the state this year. Hughes has also posted top-10 times in the 500 free (third, 5:02.77), 200 medley (fourth, 2:05.52) and 100 free (seventh, :50.99).
"Some of the coaches around Anchorage showed up at last week's meet just to see Hughes swim," Wray said. "It was a great race the whole way against Raposa, who just beat him."
The rest of Southeast is also well represented in this week's rankings of top swim times in the state. Sitka's senior Ricky Jarvill is the state's top freestyle sprinter, posting the fastest times in the 50 and 100 frees. Ketchikan sophomore Ben Voetberg is the top-ranked 100 backstroker, as well as being ranked in several other events. And Sitka's Alexis Will has posted top-20 times in five events to lead Southeast girls.
"I think the kids will all be excited," Wray said. "Emotionally and physically they are tired because of all the training. But its all a continuation of our goals -- swim hard and don't give up."
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Jeff Kasper can be reached at jkasper@juneauempire.com.