Knights take third at Valley Invitational swim meet

PALMER — Despite technical difficulties at the Valley Invitational swim meet, the metaphorical fish swam on.

The digital timing clock in the Palmer pool had been “dead” before the meet began on Thursday — thereby increasing the number of volunteers necessary to keep track of results — but when the electronic voting system went out during the final diving competition Saturday, judges and race officials had to go even more old-school. Each judge was given a flipbook of scores and had to show it to announcer Mike Janecek, who then read the scores aloud to the audience.

While another little mishap seemed to rattle Palmer diver Gabe Waldhaus a bit — the dive he was to perform in the finals had been submitted incorrectly, but officials allowed him to do the one he prepared — he still managed a second place finish behind Wasilla’s Brayden Schachle. Colony's Colby Lord took third.

Katelyn Foster took second place for the Knights in the girls’ 1-meter diving competition, followed by Palmer’s Samantha Laselle in fourth and Foster’s teammate, Eileen Cyr, in fifth.

On the swimming side, both Colony teams took third place overall as the highest Valley finishers. It was a close call for the boys, though — they lost second place to the Soldotna Stars by just two points.

Colony head coach Wil Fernandez expressed some surprise when the results were announced over the loudspeaker, but at the same time, he had an explanation.

“Everything goes up in the air when it’s finals,” Fernandez said.

The Valley Invite came at the end of a difficult week, too, he said. Tapering starts next week for the Colony teams, so the boys were “in a place where they’re mentally and physically exhausted,” Fernandez said.

And he took full responsibility for that.

“I put them there,” he said. “I’m making sure they know that just because their body is broken down, their mind doesn’t have to be.”

For their part, the boys admitted they were feeling the exhaustion today, too.

“I just felt sluggish today,” said Colony swimmer Zach Bloom. “In the prelims I did a lot better.”

Bloom has posted many of Colony’s highest finishes this season, and even without his “A” game on Saturday, Bloom won the 200- and the 500-yard freestyle events and contributed to the Knights’ second-place finish in the 200-yard medley relay and third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay.

Before the meet was over, Bloom said he figured they would “at least beat So-Hi,” and “beat Kodiak if we can for extra,” having been competitive with those teams throughout the season. At some point during the meet, the Knights were just 11 points behind Kodiak, but the Bears ended up winning the invitational with 123 points on the boys' side — compared to Colony's 62 and Soldotna's 64 — by the end of the meet.

Bloom’s teammate, Elliot Amato, also competed in the 200-yard medley and freestyle relays and won the 50-yard freestyle, coming in just ahead of Palmer’s Max Snelders.

Amato, too, said he didn’t feel his best, but looks forward to the Region Championship in two weeks.

“I think I could’ve done better, but, Regions,” he said. “It’s all about Regions.”

Still, he clocked a personal best in the 100-yard freestyle by more than a second, he said, which earned him fifth place in the finals.

Colony’s Jake Simmons, another member of the aforementioned high-placing relay teams, won the 100-yard butterfly and took fourth in the 100-yard backstroke.

Joseph Anderson, the fourth man in the relays, took second in the 200-yard IM and won the 100-yard breaststroke.

On the girls’ side, Rachel Crosley took second in the 50-yard freestyle, Camille Dayton took second in the 100-yard backstroke, and Sierra Kinworthy took second and third, respectively, in the 500- and 200-yard freestyle events for Colony.

“I’m very happy,” Coach Fernandez said after the meet. “I couldn’t be prouder.”

Wasilla coach Hadley Nicholson said she felt the same toward her swimmers, even though not enough of her girls scored to give them a team finish.

“They’ve got all the tools and they’re ready to go (for Regions),” Nicholson said.

Koya Barrette won the consolation heat of the boys 200-yard IM for the Warriors. Cheyanne Sundberg, Ashley Phillips, Samantha Belliston and Mackenzie Seims represented the women Warriors in individual events.

For Palmer, head coach Chris Morgan said during the meet that all her swimmers were “looking really strong,” and mentioned both Max and Millie Snelders as the swimmers she thought were her highest performers at the meet, though it was “hard to choose,” she said.

Millie took fourth in the 200-yard IM and Sarah Hanson took fourth in the 200-yard freestyle and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle for Palmer.

Complete results were not available on Saturday evening. Please check Frontiersman.com for updated information.

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