Swimmers eye success in regionals

DARRELL L. BREESE/ Frontiersman reporter

PALMER - After swimming countless miles in the pool swimmer and divers from the Valley's three high school teams are ready to showcase their abilities during the Region III championship meet which begins with preliminaries Thursday at the Palmer High Pool.

Heading into the meet several Valley athletes are expected to challenge for individual titles in the 13 swimming events, but the best chance for local athletes may be with the divers.

Led by Emily Whitstine and Sheree Whitford the Colony girls have become a dominant pair on the one-meter spring board. Wasilla counters with a trio of boys who should challenge for title.

Whitstine recently set a school record of 419.1 points at the Valley Invitational meet, which features competitors from each of the regions schools. Whitford finished third in the same competition, scoring 319.65 points.

Senior Chris McGinty and brothers Erin and Ryan Hogan should contend for the boys title. Each of them have won a competition this season and at the Valley Invite Ryan Hogan game from behind to top Kenai's Andy Knowles.

&#8220The boys diving should be the closest,” Larry Smith, who coaches both the Colony and Wasilla divers, said. &#8220The top four were separated by less than 20 points at the Valley Invitational, that is the difference between scoring 5's and 7's on any one dive. It should be exciting.”

Wasilla's Katie Shadrach and Emily Long are among the favorites in the swimming events. Shadrach has the second fastest time among region swimmers in the 200-yard freestyle heading into the meet, 2 minutes, 10.21 seconds. She finished second to Soldotna's Adrienne Marey at the Valley Invite.

Warrior's teammate Nancy Long is expected to win both the 200 individual medley and the 500 freestyle, but she should be challenged by Naomi Franquelin of Kodiak in both races.

Other girls to watch for in the swimming events include Palmer's Katy Guinotte and Colony's Azzy Brown. Both had had success competing in various events during the regular season and it is unclear what races the will participate in at the regional meet. No matter what events they swim they should be expected to challenge for the championship.

Wasilla Junior Wil Fernandez has the best chance of claiming an individual title for the boys, having won the 100 backstroke, 59.97, during the Valley Invite and ranks in the top-10 statewide in the event.

The Warrior boys also should be in contentions for the relay races, having the Regions tops times in the 200 and 400 freestyle races.

If the Valley Invitational meet is any indication of how the competition for the team title will go, the Homer girls and Kodiak boys have to be the pre-meet favorites.

Other swimmers to watch during the meet include Soldotna's Eve Green and Seaward's Jacqueline Van Driessche who won the state championship in the 50 freestyle last year.

This weekend also marks the first time that a Valley school will host the region championships since 2000. Competition begins with the diving preliminaries Thursday at 5:30 p.m., swimming preliminaries will begin at noon Friday and finals of both swimming and diving will be held Saturday at 1 p.m.

Contact Darrell L. Breese at 352-2267 or at darrell.breese@

frontiersman.com.