Senior swimmers stand supported for regions, state

PALMER — From flipper-clad feet to clasped hands between two swimmers during a relay, sights at the senior send-off swim meet indicated one thing: this weekend was about fun.

Well, for the most part.

Right before one of the boys’ 200-yard relays, Colony High head coach Wil Fernandez could tell his swimmers were scheming something, which he made sure to nix before the buzzer sounded.

“Ah, come on!” said senior swimmer Isaiah Tira, in response.

After the race, coach Fernandez clarified that the swimmers were “allowed to screw around,” as one boy put it, only if the event was a relay and didn’t involve non-seniors, who were still “expected to perform” in the meet, Fernandez said.

So were the seniors — with the region and state championship meets on the horizon, they must be prepared — but as their last chance to just swim, relax and have fun, the coaches gave them a little leeway.

“It’s more about tradition now,” Fernandez said of the meet, which is “mainly about the seniors.”

As a result, the boys dressed in girls’ swimsuits, made-up strokes that mimicked a screwdriver motion, and dives with a difficulty level of “infinity” were hardly novel.

Palmer High School’s lone female diver, senior Samantha Laselle, was slated to do a belly flop for her final dive, but found it a little too intimidating to complete, and dove straight into the pool.

The crowd booed when she came out of the water, and even her mother asked that she do it again. Laughing, Laselle took to the board once more — and almost made it.

Laselle finished second overall for the girls.

“I’m hoping for third or fourth (place) at regions, and I’m really hoping to go to state,” Laselle said. “It’s my last chance.”

Laselle said she has not made it to the state meet before, but it sounded as if perhaps this meet was the one in which she was most anxious to compete.

“It’s really, really special to me,” she said. “I’ve been waiting my senior send-off since I was a freshman.”

Laselle said she’ll miss diving and her teammates, but does not intend to compete at the college level, since the dives are two meters higher.

Colony’s Katelyn Foster, the senior who won the girls’ 1-meter diving competition last weekend and this weekend, was a little less nostalgic about her diving career.

“Sad?” she said. “I’m not sad. I’m actually kind of happy. I’ve been feeling really good this week.”

Perhaps that’s, again, with the state meet fast approaching.

A Colony parent said he thought Foster could take first place in the state meet, but her reach doesn’t stretch quite that far.

“Maybe not first, but at least better than last year,” she said. “I’ve improved a lot this year.”

Last year Foster placed 13th overall in the state meet.

On the swimming side of things, Colony’s Bianca Cratty — whose place in a relay was taken by a male teammate when she was stuck taking the SAT — is also graduating, along with teammates Zach Bloom, Gavin Birch, Cameron Buck, Rachel Crosley, Alta Dean, Sierra Kinworthy, Isaiah Tira and Jamie Vargason.

For Palmer, Denali Branham, Sarah Hanson, Vince Nelson and Luke Sargent will be graduating with Laselle.

Wasilla’s Alexandra Butler, Isaac Fife, Trent Gillson, Gary Robertson and Isadora Warhus are also graduating this school year.

The Region III swimming and diving championship meet will take place at Soldotna High School this Friday and Saturday, Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

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