According to Juneau-Douglas High School swim and dive coach Seth Cayce, the final three weeks of the season are the best.
“Everyone’s getting hyped up, we’re tapering down and everyone’s swimming pretty quick right now,” he said.
Hyped, tapered and quick — the Thunder Mountain and Juneau-Douglas High School swim teams take to the Region V Swim & Dive Championships this Friday and Saturday.
The preliminary races start at 5 p.m. Friday at the Dimond Park Aquatics Center. All the relays and those fortunate enough to make the finals will be in action starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Boys outlook
Some established Region V heavyweights — such as Bergen Davis or Spencer Holt — have already set their sights next weekend’s state meet. Holt won the 100-yard butterfly in both the Region V and state meet last year. Davis won the 100-yard breaststroke and 200-yard IM at those same two meets.
However, most of the swimmers in the field of JDHS, TMHS, Sitka, Ketchikan and Petersburg are squarely focused on this weekend’s meet. A majority of the JDHS swimmers fit into this category.
“They’ve got a lot of boys that are going to be making finals at state and we’ve got a lot of the boys on the bubble,” Cayce said of TMHS.
JDHS came within six points of catching TMHS at last year’s regional meet. One of the events they’ll look to reclaim from the Falcons is the 200-yard freestyle relay.
Holt and the Falcons finished 0.19 seconds ahead of Tate Goering and the Crimson Bears in the race, picking up 18 points rather than 14.
Holt and Goering will almost certainly duel it out in other events as well, such as the 100 and 200-yard freestyle. Both are expected to qualify for the state meet.
“It’s a little stressful but I’m really excited and hopeful for me and our whole team,” Goering said.
Girls outlook
JDHS posted nearly 40 more points than runner-up Sitka at last year’s Region V meet. However, the Wolves have been the top team in the region this year.
“They had a number of freshmen girls come in that are pretty quick,” Cayce said. “And we lost a number of pretty quick seniors. They were kind of on our heels last year and they’ve got a real good shot this year at doing some big things at state.”
Only two Falcons girls qualified for the state meet last season, including then-freshman Hannah Taube. Taube wants to break the school record in the 500-yard freestyle this weekend, which a board inside the aquatics center lists at 5:41. Taube wanted to break the record last year — but didn’t prepare wisely enough to do it.
“I ended up overtraining so I couldn’t. So going into this season, I’ve been working hard to get that,” Taube said.
Swimming in their final high school meets for JDHS are Andyn Mulgrew-Truitt, Sophia Puliafico and Eric Schumacher for JDHS.
Davis, Charlie Jim, Caleb Deer, Casey Hamilton, Brady Allio, Alex Cesar, Claire Norman, Evangelyn Pajarillo, Peyten Schultz and Annie Hagen make up the TMHS senior class.
The state meet is Nov. 3-4 at Bartlett High School in Anchorage. The JDHS girls finished second last year at state while the TMHS boys were third.
2016 Region V girls team results
1. Juneau-Douglas 164
2. Sitka 126
3. Thunder Mountain 87
4. Ketchikan 63
5. Petersburg 60
6. Craig 3
2016 Region V boys team results
1. Thunder Mountain 125
2. Juneau-Douglas 119
3. Sitka 96
4. Ketchikan 79
5. Petersburg 71
6. Craig 2
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
Bergen Davis at Thunder Mountain High School swim practice at Dimond Park Aquatics Center on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
Casey Hamilton at Thunder Mountain High School swim practice at Dimond Park Aquatics Center on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
