“Water’s water,” Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé senior co-captain Matthew Godkin said.
He was speaking to the Petersburg Aquatic Center pool, the site of this weekend’s Southeast Region V Swim & Dive Championships hosted by the Petersburg Vikings.
“Our first meet of the season was there,” Godkin said. “And we have swam there every year. We’re familiar with the pool. Sometimes water feels a little different but, I mean, for the most part it is pretty similar…I am looking forward, really, to just racing. To qualifying for state. I am looking forward to the team aspect, supporting teammates and just doing our best. And also looking forward to winning. I think the boys team has a shot at winning this year and I want to do it.”
It’s all about the taper.
That’s the period of time when swimmers reduce their training volume but maintain training frequency and intensity in preparation for hitting their best time — train fast, train often, but train less.
The JDHS swimmers have done it for years, ever since they were little Glacier Swim Club splashes. And they have been on a taper now as regions approach.
“Going into regions, I am trying my best to enjoy every moment and savor my last high school season,” JDHS senior co-captain Pacific Ricke said. “It really is a bittersweet moment…I am trying to approach my region swims one at a time. I often get caught up in the excitement and nerves of everything so I am doing my best to go event by event, both physically and mentally. When it comes to this part of the season it is necessary to trust both the training and the taper. Every practice this season plays into the final meets (regions and state)…I am super-excited for regions. It is always a fun meet and it will kick off a great two weeks for the team. Often I feel like the excitement at regions is often higher than at state, since it determines if people’s seasons continue.”
At full taper, JDHS sophomore Kennedy Miller is eager to best her times in numerous events.
“Getting ready for regions, I think a lot of it is mental,” Miller said. “Getting emotionally ready because I know that I am physically ready. It’s my second year going to regions and I think that I am going to do pretty well, it is just getting there in my head, you know?”
During the regular season teams will move athletes through various individual or relay events on the two-day meets, testing the waters, so to speak.
For instance, in Sitka earlier this month the Crimson Bears girls 200 freestyle relay of junior Deedee Mills, Miller and sophomores Bailey Fisher and Amy Liddle won that race on Friday and on Saturday Miller, Fisher, Ricke and senior Lucia Chapell won. The girls 200 medley relay of Ricke, Miller, Chapell and Fisher won on a Friday and the following Saturday Mills, senior Parker Boman, Liddle and Ricke won.
Now throw in senior Nova Brakes-Hines and you can shake up the 400 relay as well. While this helps to see what a strong relay team could be, it also shakes up training and keeps the season fresh.
“Going into regions is exciting,” Liddle said. “It is the first meet that we are going to this season tapered so we are hoping to see some improvement but ultimately I am just trying to focus on mentally preparing myself…Coach Josiah has us regularly visualize our races, thinking about the technical pieces, imagining it how we would ideally swim that event and really thinking about every small detail.”
The winner of each event in each of the four regions earns an automatic qualification to the state championships. Also qualifying are the next 12 fastest times across the four regions to total 16.
“Our taper set is really helping and we’re working on visualizing which is really helpful definitely if I am sprinting the whole time, going all out,” Fisher said.
For relays the region winners and next four fastest times qualify, to total eight.
“Going into regions always is the hardest part of the year,” Mills said. “It is when the sets get hard and more challenging and you have to push for it but it is exciting to know that all that work pays off in the end. I feel great about regions this year because I’ve been doing better this season than I have any previous year. And knowing that the extra work I put in this season helped me improve is a big motivation to keep going.”
A team can enter four individual athletes per event per gender. For example, four Crimson Bears girls and four boys can swim the 50 free. However, an individual can only swim two events and up to two relay events.
For instance, Ketchikan’s Evan Dash is ranked first in the state in the 50 breast, 50 fly and 100 fly, second in the 100 and 200 free and fourth in the 50 free.
A large swim team can fill all the events. Some teams will even move a top individual to another event if they know they can still be powerful in both.
JDHS’ Matthew Plang has the state’s fourth-fastest time in the 50 breast with 28.83 to Dash’s 28.00. If Plang can beat Dash that hurts the Kayhi scoring, unless Dash isn’t in that event.
Meets are scored with first place earning nine points, second seven, third six, fourth five, fifth four, sixth three, seventh two and eighth one. Relays are scored double those points. Only the finals are scored.
Friday are the preliminary races with Saturday the finals.
However, since Petersburg is a six-lane pool, as opposed to Juneau, Ketchikan and Sitka which have eight lanes, it presents an unusual second day.
The meet will be scored through six placings, not eight. There still will be a top eight times from Friday that advance to Saturday, however, the finals and the consolation finals will each have six swimmers. The consolation swimmers will feature the seventh and eighth qualifiers from Friday (in lanes 3 and 4) and, even if they place last in the Saturday swim or win with a faster time than the finals winner, their times from Friday are their ASAA state consideration times.
So on Friday swimmers cannot be lackadaisical on their times, they have to qualify for Saturday.
Sitka swim coach Robby Jarvill said regions is about “swimming best times. It all comes down to you have to swim well on Friday to get to Saturday, and have to swim well on Saturday to have a chance to qualify for state. So we try to just break it down into Friday, and then when Friday is done, we focus on Saturday and really not focus on state. Because a lot of times kids look beyond this meet, and even if they’re comfortable and can have bad swims and still qualify, you still gotta focus on regions before state. So that’s kind of always been my approach is it comes down to a Friday, Saturday, and then another Friday, Saturday.”
He said containing their excitement is hard “because once you start resting them after you’ve been breaking them down for three months, and then all of a sudden, you’re doing things in the pool, physically and mentally, to make them feel good. I pretty much just talk to them, let them know that they have to contain all that positive, good energy that they’re feeling and wait ’til we get to the pool on Friday afternoon, and then you can let it go. Kind of how you know that they’re hitting their taper and their rest properly is you can read their body language and they just start kind of bouncing off the walls naturally. And you know that they’re feeling good.”
Ketchikan swim coach Zach Trudeau said the Kings’ approach to regions is “probably pretty similar to everybody else. You start training hard, you kind of build up through the season, and then by the time you get to this point, for most of the kids it is a taper, so you’re kind of just backing off the yardage and intensity is looking a little bit different. But yeah, you’re just kind of backing off the yardage and trying to fine tune the small things.”
Ketchikan and JDHS are expected to be in a battle for the team title.
Teams are supposed to have their entries into the meet recorded the Monday before the region meet, but that has always been a very soft deadline, mostly depending on the host site. Coaches would rather not have the entrants listed until the heat sheets are posted.
“I’ll tell you right now,” Trudeau said in jest. “We’re gonna put in Gabe Aldridge. He’s gonna be center. He’s gonna be working the high post. Easton Yoder, he’s going to be coming off the edge. He’s gonna be doing corner blitzes for us on third downs, especially.”
But this is Southeast after all, and the lads and lasses have been competing against each other for years, through swim clubs and now into high schools.
In a more serious tone Trudeau said, “You know, we love relays, and I think the girls, they’re excited, because this is the first year in quite some time where we have enough to really try to make a splash in a lot of the relays. And then for the boys, kind of the same deal. I mean, swimming is such an individual sport that the moment you get to kind of team up and try to win that race, that relay race, it’s just a little bit more exciting.”
The swim season is almost like one long practice culminating in the unveiling of that best time and that pressure of do or die can be overwhelming.
Said Trudeau, “For some of the kiddos that’s the world that they’re living in. That’s how they feel. And you can’t curtail that at all. I think there’s so much excitement because it’s coming to an end, or possibly you get to swim just a little bit longer. I think for a majority of the kiddos across the region and the state the main goal is, ‘OK, we’ve worked extremely hard, and now it’s time to put everything that we have into the events that we dabbled with over the long course of this year, and pick our best ones and try to make it to state.”
JDHS swim coach Josiah Loseby said some of the Crimson Bears are fully tapering for regions and some for state.
“Really the physical pieces we have right now are locked in,” Loseby said. “And we are fine tuning some smaller things with each of the strokes and then just really focusing in on that mental strength piece and ensuring that we are completely physically ready and completely mentally ready. Just focusing on that belief in ourselves and our teammates and knowing that when things get hard, and they will get hard, there is that belief in each other that helps to carry us forward.”
JDHS sophomore Riley Soboleff said, “To prepare for regions we are working on our tapering sets right now and we’re extra fast once we get there.”
Added freshman Delphine Hochstoeger, “We are tapering and visualizing our events and things. The hardest part of visualizing is being in that mental state I guess.”
And sophomore Kaelyn Szefler, hoping to hit a personal best, said, “I think the sprints are the hardest because you have to bring your arms out of the water. It is just a hard stroke.”
Swimmers across Southeast, young or old, are used to championship pressure but many will not be moving on past this weekend.
“That’s another part of focusing on the region weekend and not focusing on state,” Sitka coach Jarvill said. “Until it’s time, right? Making this weekend. This is what we’re focusing on right now. This is the job at hand. For a lot of them, if they don’t swim best times on Friday, they do have the consoles on Saturday. But if you’re not in the top eight, then your times on Saturday won’t even be considered for the state meet. Since there are no relays on Friday they can focus on their individual events. And then come Saturday the relays have got to perform and just the natural energy of a championship meet they rise up to it. So many of them, 90% of them, swim (in) club and have been at championship meets and prelim finals meets. And so it’s not like other sports, where you might be a freshman and never gone to a Region Five event before. A lot of these kids have been doing it since they were younger. So it is more or less controlling the energy. And when it’s time to unleash and swim, it’s time to go.”
The top times in all four regions across Alaska will qualify for the state championships Nov. 8-9 at Anchorage’s Bartlett High School Pool. In individual events the first place winner from each region and the next 12 times advance to state to make 16 entrants. In relays the first-place team from each region and the next four fastest times advance to state to make eight entrants.
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
Top Southeast swims ranked in the state’s top 16 (including state leader):
50 Free Women – 1. Amaya Rocheleau, Kodiak 24.52; 6. Liddle, JDHS 25.49; 12. Mills, JDHS 26.00; 15. Lexie Tow, PSG 26.25.
50 Free Men – 1. Wes Mank, Eagle River 21.09; 4. Evan Dash, KTN 22.38.
100 Free W – 1. Ellee Voltz, Wrangell 45.13; 6. Liddle, JDHS 55.23; 15. Mills, JDHS 57.62.
100 Free M – 1. Mank, ER 46.20; 2. Dash, KTN 48.69; 15. Parker Hagan, KTN 50.36; 16. Logan Tow, PSG 50.55.
200 Free W – 1. Liddle, JDHS 1:57.21; 9. Tow, PSG 2:04.83; 14. Taryn Fleming, Sitka 2:06.34.
200 Free M – 1. Mank, ER 1:43.60; 2. Dash, KTN 1:47.49; 10. Hagan, KTN 1:51.82; 15. Tow, PSG 1:53.14; 16. Corin Colliver, SIT 1:53.52.
500 Free W – 1. Liddle, JDHS 5:17.86; 8. Ricke, JDHS 5:42.06; 9. Fleming, SIT 5:43.57; 13. Bella Miller, PSG 5:46.58; 14. Lucia Chapell, JDHS 5:48.56.
500 Free M – 1. Cody Hubert, KOD 4:52.25; 9. Gavin Harold, KTN 5:04.01; 10. Dash, KTN 5:04.94; 11. Zach Martens, SIT 5:05.24; 12. Tow, PSG 5:05.77.
50 Back W – 1.Rocheleau, KOD 26.96; 6. Mills, JDHS 29.51; 13. Sanders, JDHS 30.33; 14. Chapell, JDHS 30.38; 15. Ricke, JDHS 30.42.
50 Back M – 1. Mank, ER 22.86; 9. Harold, KTN 26.79; 10. Grant Maygren, Craig 27.09; 16. Hagan, KTN 27.55.
100 Back W – 1. Keira Gust, ER 58.82; 5. Mills, JDHS 1:01.28; 6. Liddle, JDHS 1:02.35; 7. Fleming, SIT 1:02.46; 9. Ricke, JDHS 1:03.91; 12. Chapell, JDHS 1:04.81.
100 Back M – 1. Mank, ER 50.22; 6. Harold, KTN 57.30; 8. Hagan, KTN 58.68; 12. Liam Kiessling, JDHS 58.99; 14. Zach Martens, SIT 1:00.13.
50 Breast W – 1. Anna Brooks, Service 32.65; 5. Liddle, JDHS 33.38; 11. Tow, PSG 34.78; 14. Boman, JDHS 35.20; 16. Miller, JDHS 35.28.
50 Breast M – 1. Dash, KTN 28.00; 4. Matthew Plang, JDHS 28.83; 14. Harold, KTN 30.22.
100 Breast W – 1. Brooks, SER 1:09.50; 2. Liddle, JDHS 1:09.57; 4. Tow, PSG 1:11.11; 8. Miller, JDHS 1:13.37; 11. Boman, JDHS 1:13.99; 14. Eve Rice, SIT 1:15.07.
100 Breast M – 1. Jan Beck, SER 1:00.45; 3. Dash, KTN 1:00.60; 6. Plang, JDHS 1:02.40; 13. Harold, KTN 1:04.95; 14. Zach Martens, SIT 1:05.35; 15. Josh Edwards, JDHS 1:05.79.
50 Fly W – Rocheleau, KOD 26.08; 5. Fleming, SIT 28.06; 7. Liddle, JDHS 28.52; 15. Chapell, JDHS 30.18.
50 Fly M – 1. Dash, KTN 23.93.
100 Fly W – 1. Reese Woodward, ER 58.16; 2. Liddle, JDHS 58.70; 5. Fleming, SIT 1:00.97; 11. Chapell, JDHS 1:04.42; 12. Miller, JDHS 1:05.12.
100 Fly M – 1. Dash, KTN 51.65; 12. Tommy McCarthy, SIT 56.42; 13. Plang, JDHS 56.46.
200 IM W – 1. Liddle, JDHS 2:12.87; 15. Ricke, JDHS 2:25.95; 16. Tow, PSG 2:26.59.
200 IM M – 1. Mank, ER 1:57.61; 2. Dash, KTN 2:00.85; 7. Harold, KTN 2:04.04; 8. Martens, SIT 2:06.27; 9. Plang, JDHS 2:07.09; 10. Edwards, JDHS 2:07.22.
200 Free Relay W – 1. ER 1:41.68; 4. JDHS 1:44.89; 11. PSG 1:51.26; 16. KTN 2:02.51.
200 FR M – 1. ER 1:30.08; 5. JDHS 1:33.31; 7. KTN 1:34.92; 8. SIT 1:35.48.
400 FR W – 1. ER 3:39.88; 4. JDHS 3:55.63; 10. PSG 4:12.95; 16. KTN 4:34.89.
400 FR M – 1. Colony 3:18.84; 3. KTN 3:28.56; 4. SIT 3:29.79; 6. JDHS 3:33.00.
200 Medley Relay W – 1. ER 1:52.87; 3. JDHS 1:55.76; 11. PSG 2:02.87; 16. KTN 2:17.68.
200 MR M – 1. ER 1:37.62; 5. JDHS 1:44.38; 6. KTN 1:44.43; 8. SIT 1:47.19; 16. CRG 2:00.66.
1 Meter Dive W – 1. Charlize McManus, COL 257.25; 5. Kellyn Briggs, KTN 196.50; 10. Taylor Mesdag, JDHS 174.85; 11. Moira Bahn, JDHS 161.15; 14. Sanders, JDHS 136.80; 15. Addie Williams, JDHS 133.35; 16. Gabrielle Ely, JDHS 129.55; 17. Stella Asplund, JDHS 119.40.
1 MD M – 1. Clayton Huff, KTN 216.90; 3. Liam Woodward, KTN 208.90; 4. Paul Smith, JDHS, 161.75; 5. Easton Berger, JDHS 194.30; 6. Rise Frawley, JDHS 133.25; 7. Angus Andrews, JDHS 100.30.
