Colony swim, Wasilla dive teams anticipate wins at state

MAT-SU — As powerful a force the Colony High School Swimming and Diving team has been in competitions this season, Wasilla High’s lone state championship qualifier, sophomore Brayden Schachle, is one to be reckoned with.

Wasilla and Colony head diving coach Wendy DiGerlando said at the beginning of the season she wasn’t even sure Schachle was going to join the team. He missed the first couple weeks of practice, Coach DiGerlando said, because he wasn’t sure if he could make the extra time commitment.

Schachle grew up playing hockey, DiGerlando said, but for the past three years, he has been training and coaching gymnastics at Denali Gymnastics and Fitness in Wasilla.

“It’s been really hectic,” Schachle said by phone Wednesday. “Right after diving (practice) I go straight to the gym until about 7:30 or 8 (p.m.).”

His decision to pack more into his schedule has paid off, though. He didn’t have enough practices at the time to compete in the first meet of the season — the Colony Tri Invitational — so his first competition was the Bartlett High School/Chugiak High School Invitational, a 14-team meet.

He took second place, 24 points behind Dimond High School’s Austin Desatoff and 43 points ahead of junior Gabe Waldhaus from Palmer.

“Since then he’s been undefeated,” DiGerlando said.

Most recently, Schachle won the Valley Invitational and the Region III Championship diving competitions by 20- and 30-point margins, respectively.

But he’s just getting started.

“Right now I feel like I’m better at gymnastics ‘cause I’ve been doing it a lot longer, but with how fast I’m improving with diving that should catch up pretty fast,” he said.

Schachle said he’s excited about the wins he’s claimed this season and what’s to come in the next as he prepares himself for year-round training with the Wasilla Diving Club.

First, though, he has three new dives to perform. DiGerlando said he’s practiced the dives, but has yet to show them in competition.

“I think the sport of diving needs Brayden Schachle,” she said.

But she didn’t ignore her other state divers, who each have promising careers ahead of them, she said. Colony freshmen Colby Lord, Tanner Belliston and Eileen Cyr also are headed to the state meet, plus senior Katelyn Foster. Belliston and Foster also will perform one and two new dives at the state meet, respectively.

“Most of the divers that are competing, they had a foundation before, although they have definitely excelled and learned more difficult dives this year,” DiGerlando said. “There’s been a huge improvement over this three-month intensive season for all of them.”

The same could be said for stars of Colony’s entire swimming and diving team. Twenty-one Knights qualified for the state meet, the third largest team headed to the championship, behind Kodiak’s 23 and Dimond’s 22 swimmers and divers. Of Colony’s 21, swimming seniors Zach Bloom, Rachel Crosley and Sierra Kinworthy, junior Joseph Anderson and freshman Jake Simmons are expected to make waves like never before.

“Really our relay swimmers are the ones that have stepped up this year,” said Colony head swim coach Wil Fernandez. “They’re not just swimming for themselves this year, you know, they’re seeing the big picture.”

Bloom will be swimming in the 200-yard medley relay, the 400-yard freestyle relay and the 200- and 500-yard freestyle events. He won the 200 and 500 free races at the region meet his year and last year, beating this year’s runner-up by 10 seconds in the 500. He is seeded third and fifth in the state for the 200 free and the 500 free, respectively.

Coach Fernandez had seen Bloom around the pool while he was coaching for Northern Lights Swim Club, but he hadn’t worked with the swimmer directly until recently.

“When I came in his junior year, he was just on top of the water rockin’ it, (but) he’s really grown in terms of body development and technique,” Fernandez said. “He’s really refined a lot of things. More than physical though, it’s been a mental strategy for Zach.”

Fernandez said he worked with Crosley less than Bloom last year, but as a senior this year she has brought even more energy, focus and passion into her swimming.

Crosley is in the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays, as well as the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events. She is seeded 13th (tie) and 14th in the state in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races, respectively.

Kinworthy is kicking off the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays and representing the Lady Knights in the 500-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke. She took second in the 200- and 500-yard free races at regions and is seeded third in the 500, fifth in the 100 back in the state.

Kinworthy’s story might be the most unique of Colony’s top state qualifiers, as she only started swimming with the Knights last year, when Fernandez was assistant coach.

Her introduction to CHS swimming, he said, also was her introduction to Alaska.

“She’s got incredible goals and she’s come such a long way,” Fernandez said of the Tennessee native.

At the end of last season, Coach Fernandez and Kinworthy had a conversation about what she could improve upon — everything from speed to technique to cleaning up her diet, he said.

It was super effective.

Fernandez said Kinworthy will sign with a swim team for a Baptist university in Tennessee at Colony High in the next couple weeks.

“It’s been great working with her,” he said. “She’s an incredible athlete.”

Anderson is swimming in the 200-yard medley and 400-yard freestyle relays with Simmons and Bloom, the 200-yard individual medley and the 100-yard breaststroke. Simmons is also swimming the 200 IM and the 100-yard butterfly events.

Anderson and Simmons are seeded ninth and sixth respectively in the 200 IM; Anderson third in the 100 breaststroke; and Simmons fourth in the 100 ’fly.

Crosley will compete with Millie Snelders from Palmer in the 50 free, but the rest of the Moose state qualifying swim team — Max Snelders and Sarah Hanson — will not directly compete with Colony in any other swimming event.

Max will swim the 100-yard backstroke, Millie will swim the 100-yard breaststroke as her second event and Hanson will swim the 200-yard freestyle at the state meet.

“This season we really, really became a championship team, whether or not we hold the title,” Coach Fernandez said.

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