Colony swim and dive going for gold

SOLDOTNA — The Knights are looking for wins across the board this weekend at the Region III Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by Soldotna High School.

“We’re gonna shoot for gold, no question about that,” said Colony High head swim coach Wil Fernandez by phone Thursday afternoon.

But they never aim for anything less.

“You shoot for it whether you think it’s a long shot or not,” he said.

It hardly sounds like a long shot this year, however. Colony’s male and female swimmers have consistently finished first, or near the top, this season, sweeping the Colony Tri Invitational, finishing second at Lathrop High School in Fairbanks and Homer High School, securing multiple individual wins at the Seward Invitational and winning the Valley Invitational two weeks ago. The boys’ team also took second in the state preview meet at Bartlett High School at the end of September.

“We have a lot of potential first-place finishers,” Coach Fernandez said.

On the girls’ side, senior Sierra Kinworthy is ranked in the top 16 swimmers in the state for three events, according to Alaska Swimming News and Information. She’s ranked fifth in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 2:00.92, sixth in the 100-yard butterfly with 1:01.67 and second in the 500-yard free with 5:14.84, behind Kodiak’s Tahna Lindquist.

Fernandez said Lindquist is probably Kinworthy’s stiffest competition — which makes sense, since Kodiak is the team for both the boys and girls to beat.

“My personal expectation is for us to hold our current rankings as second place in the region,” Fernandez said. “If that doesn’t happen, something’s gone horribly wrong.”

Senior Rachel Crosley also is expected to do well in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events.

Crosley said she’s hoping for a podium finish this weekend in the 50-yard freestyle, and maybe even a sub-27-second time, which would put her on the Wasilla Waves Swim Club record board. She “barely didn’t make it” to state last year, so she’s hoping to achieve that goal as a senior.

She said she also expects her 200-yard medley and freestyle relay teams to do well.

Between Colony’s six relay teams going to the region championship, Fernandez said he expects at least three of those — boys’ or girls’ — to come in first.

The Palmer girls’ 200-yard medley relay team is ranked 10th behind Colony in seventh, and the Palmer boys’ 200-yard medley team is ranked 13th, compared to Colony’s third-place ranking.

For individuals, Colony senior Zach Bloom, junior Joseph Anderson and freshman Jake Simmons are each ranked in the top 10 for the 200-yard IM, with times of 2:02.55, 2:03.30 and 2:05.06, respectively.

Bloom is also ranked second in the 200-yard freestyle, third in the 500-yard freestyle, 10th in the 100-yard freestyle, 10th in the 100-yard backstroke and 15th in the 50-yard freestyle.

Anderson is ranked second in the 100-yard breaststroke and Simmons is ranked seventh in the 100-yard backstroke, ninth in the 100-yard breaststroke and 14th in the 200-yard freestyle, in addition to their rankings in the 200 IM.

“I’m feeling really pumped up about this meet,” Anderson said after practice yesterday. “I’m excited, I think our team’s gonna do really well.”

Anderson said he is hoping for a region record in the 100-yard breaststroke and fast finishes in the 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay.

Simmons has been a top performer for the Knights on several occasions, which is perhaps no surprise given his eight years of experience with the Wasilla Waves Swim Club. But he said he didn’t think he’d do this well his freshman year.

“I didn’t expect that I would be this high ranked,” he said. “I also figured that I’d be going to state, but not as a finalist.”

Anderson said he’s looking for a podium finish in the 200-yard IM this weekend and a win in the 100-yard butterfly.

The divers are just as competitive.

Colony senior Katelyn Foster has won multiple competitions this season, including the Lathrop meet, the Valley Invitational and the senior send-off meet. Foster is currently ranked fifth with 215.5 points, ahead of Palmer’s Samantha Laselle, who is ranked sixth with 187.6 points.

Foster’s freshman teammate, Eileen Cyr, is ranked ninth with 164 points.

Palmer’s Gabe Waldhaus is the one to beat on the boys’ side, ranked fourth with 261 points to Colony freshman Colby Lord’s fifth-place ranking at 259.45 points.

Will Lord beat Waldhaus in the region meet?

“I think if I do my best and focus on all my dives I might be able to,” Lord said by phone Thursday afternoon.

Lord said he hopes to make it to the state championship.

Colony freshman Tanner Belliston is on the board as well. He is still ranked eighth in the state with 242.05 points, despite taking two weeks off from diving due to a growth plate issue in his shoulder.

Belliston said he hopes to place in the top four at regions and go to state.

Wasilla’s Brayden Schachle is ranked sixth with 251.70 points.

Wasilla and Colony diving coach Wendy DiGerlando said “so far, so good” by phone Thursday afternoon as the girls were warming up for the preliminary round of diving at Soldotna High. All divers will complete three dives today, and the top eight competitors will move on the finals tomorrow, performing three dives once more.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.