Knights sweep Palmer Invite

WASILLA — The Colony High swim and dive team earned first place at the Palmer Invitational Saturday at the Wasilla Pool.

Both the Colony girls and boys scored more than 80 points to earn first place each with a combined team score of 168.5.

“We work very hard and we see some gains from there,” Colony head coach Patrick Penoyar said.

Going into this meet though, that hard work hurt their performance Penoyar believed. Penoyar noticed that as the team continued to practice and push themselves, they began to slow. Penoyar then chose to let them rest more, which seems to have improved their performances especially in this meet. Colony High swimmers placed in third place or higher in 16 of the 24 events.

One of the many swimmers Penoyar was proud of was senior Taylor Nelson.

“I haven’t seen times like that since last year,” Penoyar said.

As part of the 200-yard medley relay, Nelson helped to propel their team out ahead of the rest and swam a lap time of 28.20 seconds. Nelson also placed second in two other events, the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard freestyle. Throughout the 200-yard freestyle, Nelson maintained a slight lead over the other swimmers. She had a strong start to the race, but in lane three, Leslie Spear from Kodiak closed the gap on the final 50 yards and edged the first-place spot from Nelson by nearly one and a half seconds.

Junior Jonathan Cowin from Colony High earned first place in all four events he participated in. Cowin swam the 400-yard freestyle relay, 200-yard freestyle, 200-yard medley relay and the 100-yard backstroke. Cowin’s tightest race came from the backstroke, which he narrowly grasped first place. At the start, Cowin gained a slim early lead, but after he swam 50 yards, Cowin and Ian Rocheleau of Kodiak High School broke away from the rest and battled only each other. Neither had a clear edge on the other for the rest of the race, and everyone uncertain of who will win waited for the swimmers’ times on the scoreboard as the building trembled from cheering. As the swimmers looked up to see who won, Cowin out swam Rocheleau by three hundredths of a second with a time of 54.41 seconds.

Not only did Colony swim dominate, Colony High diver Eli Krozel cumulated 442.3 points to earn him first place in the 1-meter dive competition. Krozel’s performance drew cheering from the entire pool after each dive, especially after executing his second dive, which had the highest difficulty degree of the whole competition.

For the final race, the Colony High boys were placed in the fourth lane for the 400-yard freestyle relay. Jonathan Cowin brought them out to an early lead, which Karson Kolberg, Aleks Tokalich and Konnor Kolberg would maintain throughout the remainder of the race to earn the first-place spot with a time of 3:26.09, two and a half seconds less than the Kodiak Bears in second place.

Though Colony was excellent this weekend, Penoyar is “not willing to bet anything” for regions coming up here shortly. However, if Colony can maintain this performance at regions, their odds would be in their favor.

Anthony Jones is a senior at Mat-Su Career and Technical School and a Frontiersman intern for the 2019-2020 school year.

Palmer Invitational

Saturday, Wasilla Pool

Girls team scores: 1. Colony 87; 2. Kodiak 60; 3. Palmer 51; 4. Soldotna 41; 5. Kenai 30; 6. Wasilla 25; 7. Seward 21; 8. Valdez 15.

Boys team scores: 1. Coony 81.5; 2. Kodiak 59; 3. Kenai 53; 4. Seward 40.5; 5. Palmer 36; 6. Soldotna 23; 6. (tie) Valdez 23; 8. Wasilla 12; 9. Bethel 1.

Girls results:

200 medley relay — 1. Colony 1:55.98; 2. Kenai 2:00.16; 3. Soldotna 2:02.36; 4. Colony B 2:04.32; 5. Palmer 2:05.39; 6. Seward 2:12.05.

200 freestyle — 1. L. Spear, Kod 2:03.56; 2. T. Nelson, Col 2:04.94; 3. J. Barrette, Col 2:05.34; 4. R Pitsch, Ken 2:10.93; 5. K. Kloutunowich, Was 2:12.02; 6. A. Juliussen, Sol 2:16.71.

200 IM — 1. L. Jacoby, Sew 2:18.04; 2. J. Biederman, Col 2:24.95; 3. B. Lovell, Valdez 2:25.41; 4. A. Palenske, Col 2:31.38; 5. E. Hubert, Kod 2:33.51; 6. A. Olson, Pal 2:41.45.

50 freestyle — 1. A. Narog, Kod 26.08; 2. M. Barkman, Sol 26.63; 3. R. Reese, Ken 26.76; 4. A. Hunt, Col 27.03; 5. K. Laasch-Gray, Col 27.49; 6. A. Nicholson, Kod 27.80.

Diving — 1. C. Mayer, Was 396.55; 2. T. Miller, Pal 345.55; 3. T. Coffman, Pal 336.85; 4. A. Dietz, Was 303.85; 5. A. Cheyette, Was 298.10; 6. A. Hrncir, Pal 286.95.

100 butterfly — 1. A. Nanog, Kod 1:02.52; 2. T. Nelson, Col 1:04.39; 3. A. Ferguson, Pal 1:06.83; 4. J. Anderson, Ken 1:06.86; 5. K. Creglow, Sol 1:08.13; 6. A. Palenske, Col 1:08.21.

100 freestyle — 1. A. Ferguson, Pal 57.02; 2. K. Kloutunowich, Was 59.10; 3. M. Barkman, Sol 59.24; 4. R. Reese, Ken 59.91; 5. A. Nicholson, Kod 1:01.34; 6. A. Juliussen, Sol 1:01.75.

500 freestyle — 1. R. Pitsch, Ken 5:49.38; 2. M. Snyder, Sol 6:01.80; 3. O. Beck, Pal 6:11.89; 4. E. Hubert, Kod 6:15.09; 5. K. Pettit, Pal 6:21.10; 6. A. Settle, Col 6:21.86.

200 freestyle relay — 1. Colony 1:45.97; 2. Palmer 1:51.23; 3. Valdez 1:53.89; 4. Kenai 1:56.68; 5 Seward 1:59.35; 6. Colony B 2:08.38.

100 backstroke — 1. L. Jacoby, Sew 1:04.16; 2. J. Barrette, Col 1:04.74; 3. J. Rogness, Col 1:06.36; 4. M. Beck, Pal 1:08.43; 5. J. Anderson, Ken 1:09.01; 6. M. Snyder, Sol 1:10.24.

100 breaststroke — 1. L. Spear, Kod 1:10.18; 2. J. Biederman, Col 1:10.22; 3. K Creglow, Sol 1:14.10; 4. B. Lovel, Val 1:15.07; 5. M. Beck, Pal 1:15.88; 6. K. Mullaly, Sol 1:18.25.

400 freestyle relay — 1. Kodiak 3:58.58; 2. Soldotna 4:03.69; 3. Colony 4:15.83; 4. Wasilla 4:17.01; 5. Palmer 4:25.71; 6. Kenai 4:29.61.

Boys results:

200 medley relay — 1. Colony 1:41.95; 2. Kenai 1:46.98; 3. Kodiak 1:49.40; 4 Soldotna 1:54.27; 5. Palmer 1:54.69; 6. Colony B 2:03.19

200 freestyle — 1. J. Cowin, Col 1:51.64; 2. J. Krug, Kod 1:53.46; 3. C. Spanos, Sew 1:53.55; 4. K. Poulin, Ken 1:54.91; 6. I. Silveria, Val 1:59.36

200 IM — 1. Ko. Kolberg, Col 2:04.47; 2. T. Bagley, Ken 2:13.30; 3. C. Randall, Val 2:13.37; 4. D. Alloto, Ken 2:18.85; 6. F. Mishmash, Val 2:25.94.

50 freestyle — 1. E. Evans, Sol 22.83; 2. O. Rolph, Ken 23.36; 3. J. Lee, Pal 23.37; 4. H. Hollingsworth, Sew 23.65; 5. S. Sorenson, Ken 23.92; 6. I. Silveria, Val 24.,00.

Diving — 1. E. Krozel, Col 442.30; 2. K. Reynolds, Was 436.40; 3. A. Layman, was 407.10; 4. D. Campbell, Was 337.95; 5. K. Bruce, Kod 246.30; 6. K. Saltzgiver, Sol 237.35.

100 butterfly — 1. C. Spanos, Sew 53.93; 2. Ko. Kolberg, Col 55.40; 3. O. Rolph, Ken 56.22; 4. C. Randall, Val 58.71; 5. K. Dalrymple-Sorenson, Pal 59.15; 6. D. Bjourn, Pal 1:02.40.

100 freestyle — 1. J. Krug, Ken 50.75; 2. H. Hollingsworth, Sew 52.24; 3. A. Tokalich, Co 54.01; 4. M. Arndt, Kod 54.39; 5. D. Alloto, Ken 54.63.

500 freestyle — 1. K. Poulin, Ken 5:17.89; 2. A. Huff, Ken 5:44.13; 3. C. Russel, Pal 5:45.87; 4. F. Mishmash, Val 5:51.12; 5. A. Jensen, Kod 5:52.77; 6. T. Belliston, Col 5L54.83.

200 freestyle relay — 1. Seward 1:36.20; 2. Kodiak 1:37.68; 3. Palmer 1:40.69; 4. Colony 1:41.01; 5. Valdez 1:47.62; 6. Kenai 1:49.17.

100 backstroke — 1. J. Cowin, Col 54.41; 2. J. Rocheleau, Kod 54.,44; 3. C. Russell, Pal 1:02.22; 4. S. Sorenson, Ken 1:02.16; 5. P. Shirk, Val 1:04.19; 6. S. Anderson, Ken 1:06.03.

100 breaststroke — 1. N. Carver, Kod 1:03.26; 2. E. Evans, Sol 1:03.42; 3. Ka. Kolberg, Col 1:04.11; 4. T. Bagley, Ken 1:05.80; 5. J. Prevost, val 1:10.88; 6. D. Crace, Bet 1:11.43.

400 freestyle relay — 1. Colony 3:26.09; 2. Kodiak 3:28.59; 3. Seward 3:25.21; 4. Palmer 3:38.89; 5. Soldotna 3:43.42; 6. Valdez 3:55.78.