KETCHIKAN — The Ketchikan High School swimming and diving team began its season Friday at the Gateway Aquatic Center.
Thunder Mountain was the lone opponent on Friday, and the Falcons and Lady Falcons both earned victories in the pool. The Thunder Mountain girls scored 195 points to Kayhi’s 155, while the Thunder Mountain boys topped the Kayhi boys 171-99.
“I think the kids did well,” Kayhi head coach Patrick Burda. “They had fun, and we had some personal-best times. On Day 1, we accomplished what we wanted to. Hopefully, we can continue the trend on Saturday.”
Another meet between Kayhi and Thunder Mountain is scheduled for Saturday at noon at the Gateway Recreation Center.
Craig and Metlakatla were scheduled to compete Friday and Saturday, but Burda said he was informed on Tuesday that neither school would have a swim team this year due to problems with the pools in both communities.
Kayhi also was missing a few key swimmers due to either illness or not attending enough practices.
“We have five or six kids not swim because of attendance,” Burda said.
In order to compete, Kayhi swimmers must have an 80-percent attendance rate for practices, a policy set by Burda.
“They can make up by doing dry-land (out of the pool) workouts, but we had a couple schedule things that shouldn’t have been scheduled during swim season,” Burda said.
