Copyright Anchorage Daily News
After winning the program’s first-ever state championship last year and bringing back most of the top swimmers from that dominant team, the Eagle River girls came into Saturday’s finals at the Bartlett High pool on a mission. The Wolves lived up to the hype and didn’t disappoint as they held off runner-up Juneau-Douglas for the second year in a row, successfully defending their team title by a combined score of 131-116. “It’s just something that we’ve been after for so long,” Eagle River head coach Bryce Carpenter said. “For us to try to build this culture eight years ago, and now all the kids come in with the attitude and expectation to be great, and I think this really sets the standard for them going into next season.” His team claimed six individual titles and a trio of top-two finishes in the relays, including one first-place finish. “I’m just happy that their hard work paid off,” Carpenter said. “I’m glad that they put the effort into the season, and the results showed.” Leading the charge for the team with successful title defenses in both her individual races was senior Reese Woodward. She won the 200-yard IM with mark of 2 minutes, 06.02 seconds, and the 100-yard butterfly with a mark of 55:74. “We put in a lot of hard work this season, and to see it pay off is really exciting,” Woodward said. Even though her older sister Lola wasn’t with her this time to help run it back in the 200-yard freestyle relay, helping the Wolves repeat in the finals with a first-place time of 1:37.51 was still sweeter than winning her individual titles. “To defend it with a new group of younger ladies is really exciting and gives me hope for this team in the future,” Woodward said. Eagle River sophomore Keira Gust won the 100-yard breaststroke with a mark of 58.43. Junior Lelaina Trembath defended her title in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:05.50, and beat out last year’s state champion in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.68. “Our team is really like a family, and I think of them all like my little sisters, and to see them have success is really cool,” Woodward said. While the Juneau-Douglas girls weren’t able to overtake Eagle River for the top spot, they still had several impressive individual and collaborative performances. The Crimson Bears started the finals off with a record-breaking first-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. Their time of 1:46.03 topped the previous record of 1:46.75, which was set by their 2014 team. “We all did really well and better than I thought we were going to do,” junior Lily Francis said. “I didn’t even know we’d have a chance at the state record, so I’m really excited about it. I thought we were going to get second place.” She swam the freestyle part of the relay and went on to win an individual state title in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 24.31. “I didn’t get a best time, but all that matters is getting points for my team,” Francis said. She and her teammate, senior Valerie Peimann — who received most outstanding swimmer honors — were on the 400-yard freestyle relay team that came in first with a time of 3:35.63. Senior Kensley Denmon helped Service sweep the diving titles by topping her program-record-breaking performance from regions. After besting the Cougars’ previous top score — which stood for 33 years — last week, she outdid herself and eked past Colony junior Claire Wallstrum with a mark of 458.25. “It means so much to me,” Denmon said. “I started diving four years ago, and I was not that good and didn’t even make it to state. Sophomore year, I didn’t even make it to finals, so winning state my senior year was everything that I was looking forward to.” Former Service record-holder Amy Priest flew up and personally congratulated Denmon on the accomplishment, and cheered her on during the first day of the state championship action. “It was the coolest thing ever,” Denmon said. State Swimming and Diving Championships At Bartlett High School pool Team scores Girls 1. Eagle River High School, 131. 2 Juneau-Douglas High School, 116. 3. Dimond High, 47. Boys 1. West Valley High School, 69. 2. Colony High School, 63. 3. Ketchikan High School, 62. Individual Girls 200-yard medley relay 1. Juneau-Douglas High School (Valerie Peimann, Kennedy Miller, Amy Liddle, Lily Francis), 1:46.03; * NEW STATE RECORD (previous record 1:46.75, Juneau-Douglas, 2014) 2. Eagle River High School, 1:46.40; 3. West Valley High School, 1:51.44. Boys 200-yard medley relay 1. West Valley High School (Quenton Rodgers, Cedar Robichaud, Zen Schaetzle, Haoran Zhang), 1:35.44; 2. Juneau-Douglas High School, 1:38.68; 3. Dimond High School, 1:39.15. Girls 200-yard freestyle 1. Trembath, Lelaina, Eagle River, 1:54.68; 2. Trembath, Sophia, Eagle River, 1:56.06; 3. Price, Abigail, Kenai, 1:56.36. Boys 200-yard freestyle 1. Fazio, Blake, Chugiak, 1:39.44 * NEW STATE RECORD (previous record 1:39.78, Talon Lindquist, Kodiak, 2016); 2. Hubert, Cody, Kodiak, 1:42.20; 3. Tow, Logan, Petersburg, 1:43.48. Girls 200-yard IM 1. Woodward, Reese, Eagle River, 2:06.02; 2. Liddle, Amy, Juneau-Douglas, 2:06.43; 3. Heaphy, Anna, Eagle River, 2:12.39. Boys 200-yard IM 1. Shockley, Nate, Eagle River, 1:58.24; 2. Harold, Gavin, Ketchikan, 1:59.98; 3. Martens, Zach, Sitka, 2:00.45. Girls 50-yard freestyle 1. Francis, Lily, Juneau-Douglas, 24.31; 2. Kass, Maizy, Dimond, 24.47; 3. Gust, Keira, Eagle River, 24.70. Boys 50-yard freestyle 1. Kopp, Clint, Dimond, 20.58; 2. Schaetzle, Zen, West Valley, 21.05; 3. Gates, Iver, Colony, 21.30. Girls 1-meter diving 1. Denmon, Kensley, Service, 458.25; 2. Wallstrum, Claire, Colony, 455.10; 3. Krozel, Lyza, Colony, 418.20. Boys 1-meter diving 1. Williams, Reubin, Service, 445.35; 2. Woodward, Liam, Ketchikan, 420.30; 3. Gose, Colter, Wasilla, 380.35. Girls 100-yard butterfly 1. Woodward, Reese, Eagle River, 55.74; 2. Liddle, Amy, Juneau-Douglas, 57.07; 3. Benner, Kylie, Palmer, 58.69. Boys 100-yard butterfly 1. Fazio, Blake, Chugiak, 49.79; 2. Schaetzle, Zen, West Valley, 49.93; 3. Kopp, Clint, Dimond, 50.46. Girls 100-yard freestyle 1. Peimann, Valerie, Juneau-Douglas, 52.26; 2. Trembath, Sophia, Eagle River, 53.23; 3. Francis, Lily, Juneau-Douglas, 54.17. Boys 100-yard freestyle 1. Tow, Logan, Petersburg, 46.54; 2. LaBoucane, Beck, Colony, 47.10; 3. Gates, Iver, Colony, 47.35. Girls 500-yard freestyle 1. Trembath, Lelaina, Eagle River, 5:05.50; 2. Cooper, Hannah, Colony, 5:15.87; 3. Rumph, Caitlyn, Eagle River, 5:19.91. Boys 500-yard freestyle 1. Hubert, Cody, Kodiak, 4:40.90; 2. Shockley, Nate, Eagle River, 4:50.13; 3. Martens, Zach, Sitka, 4:52.17. Girls 200-yard freestyle relay 1. Eagle River High School (Reese Woodward, Keira Gust, Anna Heaphy, Sophia Trembath), 1:37.51; 2. South Anchorage High School, 1:40.85; 3. Dimond High School, 1:41.24. Boys 200-yard freestyle relay 1. Dimond High School (Clint Kopp, Creed Cvancara, Andy Zhang, Dax O’Brien), 1:27.08; 2. West Valley High School, 1:27.70; 3. Colony High School, 1:27.88. Girls 100-yard backstroke 1. Gust, Keira, Eagle River, 58.43; 2. Fleming, Taryn, Sitka, 59.36; 3. Cooper, Hannah, Colony, 59.40. Boys 100-yard backstroke 1. LaBoucane, Beck, Colony, 52.55; 2. Kiessling, Liam, Juneau-Douglas, 53.20; 3. Rodgers, Quenton, West Valley, 54.65. Girls 100-yard breaststroke 1. Peimann, Valerie, Juneau-Douglas, 1:04.85; 2. Brooks, Anna, Service, 1:06.06; 3. Tow, Lexie, Petersburg, 1:07.33. Boys 100-yard breaststroke 1. Dash, Evan, Ketchikan, 59.30; 2. Fencil, Griffin, South Anchorage, 1:00.44; 3. Robichaud, Cedar, West Valley, 1:00.99. Girls 400-yard freestyle relay 1. Juneau-Douglas High School (Amy Liddle, Lily Francis, Kaelyn Szefler, Valerie Peimann), 3:35.63; 2. Eagle River High School, 3:41.58; 3. Robert Service High School, 3:46.85. Boys 400-yard freestyle relay 1. Sitka High School (Tommy McCarthy, James Nellis, Zach Martens, Corin Colliver), 3:12.86; 2. Ketchikan High School, 3:14.48; 3. Colony High School, 3:15.31.
