Wasilla diver, Colony swimmer win state titles

ANCHORAGE — Region III champion diver Brayden Schachle did it again Saturday at the ASAA/First National Banks State Championship Swimming and Diving meet, and the Colony Knights represented the Valley in swimming.

“I knew you were gonna win!” said a girl to Schachle after his event.

Schachle, a Wasilla High School sophomore new to the sport of diving, won the 1-meter diving competition with a final score of 462.95, just one point ahead of Dimond High School’s Austin Desatoff. Lathrop’s Zach Campbell, a senior, was just 0.2 points behind Desatoff.

Schachle was about 12 points shy of the previous school record, set by David Kennedy in 2008.

“If I wouldn’t have bombed my last dive I probably would’ve got it,” Schachle said of the record.

Schachle took on three new dives for the meet, however — he had practiced them, but never in competition, and he still came out on top.

He has another two years to improve, too. While coaching and practicing gymnastics already keeps him busy, Schachle said he intends to start USA Diving with a few of his fellow Valley competitors in a week or so, to keep him in shape year-round.

His goals for next season are simple:

“Just do the best I can do and beat this year’s score,” he said.

Palmer junior Gabe Waldhaus is one who will be joining Schachle in club practices soon.

Or, more appropriately, Schachle will be joining him.

Waldhaus finished ninth at the region championship his freshman year, seventh last year and fourth this year. Last year he placed ninth at the state championship, and this year he took sixth with 395.75 points.

“I was the best male diver in the Valley, then Brayden showed up,” he said.

He seemed a little rueful, but happy for his soon-to-be teammate. He also knew he had stepped up his own game since last year, which was nothing to be disappointed about.

Waldhaus said he missed making it to the state finals last year by 0.3 points, just behind South Anchorage’s Connor Knutson, who took fourth this year.

His biggest obstacle this year, however, was just the board. His final dive this weekend, he said, was one he had been having problems with ever since he hit his head on the board while performing it in a warm-up last year.

He made it this time though, injury-free, and was even 15 points from the school record, he said.

“To actually hit it and do that at state, for me it absolutely crazy,” he said. “I’m happy.”

Colony freshman Colby Lord, the other state qualifying diver from the Valley, came in seventh with 373.7 points.

The Valley also boasted a pair of divers in the girls’ top-7. Colony’s Katelyn Foster took fifth with 317.35 points. Palmer’s Samantha Laselle was seventh with 282.

Twelve Colony Knights were the only athletes to represent the Valley in the swimming finals Saturday, and they held their own. The boys finished sixth of 17 full teams and the girls finished ninth of 18.

Joseph Anderson had the standout finish of the meet for the Knights, taking first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 58.76, just .03 seconds ahead of West Valley’s Tommy O’Donoghue.

“Joseph has been on top of breaststroke since the season opener hosted by Colony back in early September,” said head coach Wil Fernandez via text, following the state meet. “We set benchmarks and he just accomplished not only his goal time of 58 (seconds), but to top it off, he won.”

Anderson also finished fifth in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 1:58.36, a new school record. His teammate, Jake Simmons, finished seventh in the same event with a time of 2:00.17

Simmons also placed fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 53.91, another new school record.

The Colony girls’ 200-yard medley relay, consisting of Sierra Kinworthy, Anne Sullivan, Camille Dayton and Rachel Crosley, placed fifth in the finals.

The boys’ relay team in the same event, consisting of Zach Bloom, Anderson, Simmons and Elliot Amato, also placed fifth in the finals.

Bloom also took eighth in the 200-yard freestyle with a final time of 1:51.01. He took seventh in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:00.82.

Although the girls placed last in the 200-yard freestyle relay, second-leg swimmer Cheyenne Terwilliger, a junior this year, said each of them swam 26-second splits.

“We dropped a lot of time,” she said.

Kinworthy said they couldn’t have done it without her.

“She’s the only reason we’re at state this year with this relay,” she said, of Terwilliger. “She’s really stepped up this year.”

Kinworthy took third in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:08.83 in the finals, more than two seconds slower than her time in the preliminaries on Friday. Perhaps that’s understandable though, given her participation in the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 100-yard backstroke events immediately following the 500.

“That was rough,” she said.

She still placed sixth in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:02.5, though, plus a school record-breaking finish in the 500. Kinworthy said she dropped five seconds off her 500 time from prior to the region meet, breaking the school record, then, twice in a two-week span.

“Kinworthy has had a goal time this season of 5:07.00, with a steady head (on) her shoulders she was able to pull (off) a 5:06.65 and gained a third place medal!” Fernandez said via text.

Coming in the top 8 in the state two relays isn’t half bad either.

“This year, as a team, we really came together,” Kinworthy said. “At every invitational, even dual meets (and) regions, our entire team was always behind our block.”

She had positive things to say about her coach as well, thanking him for being supportive of her solo training every once in a while and encouraging her and her teammates to become students of their sports by watching Olympic swimmers’ footage.

Kinworthy will be signing with Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas Nov. 12 at Colony High, after school.

“He’s one of my favorite coaches ever,” she said, of Fernandez. “He’s improved everyone so much, that’s why he got coach of the year at regions.”

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

ASAA/First National Bank State Swimming and Diving Championships

Friday-Saturday, Bartlett High School

Girls team scores:

1) Juneau 100; 2) tie, Kodiak and Dimond 87; 4) Chugiak 64; 5) South 43; 6) Soldotna 36. 7) West Valley 29; 8) West 25; 9) Colony 23; 10) Eagle River 18; 11) Sitka 9; 12) Ketchikan 8; 13) Valdez 7; 14) Hutchinson 5; 15) Bartlett 4; 16) North Pole 3; 16) Kenai 3; 18) Thunder Mountain 2; 18) Palmer 2.

Girls individual results:

200 medley relay -- 1) Juneau (Kelly, Isaak, Ruffin, Walsh), 1:46.75 (new state record; old record 1:47.86, Juneau, 2007). 2) Dimond 1:52.34. 3) South 1:54.80. 4) Soldotna 1:56.68. 5) Colony 1:58.67. 6) Kodiak 2:00.27. 7) Valdez 2:00.36. 8) West Valley 2:01.06.

200 freestyle -- 1) Burke, Samantha (Chugiak) 1:53.54. 2) Moody, Erin (Dimond) 1:55.66. 3) DeGeorge, Tara (West) 1:55.85. 4) Randall, Angie (West Valley) 1:57.97. 5) Cummiskey, Marina (Kodiak) 1:58.16. 6) Kito, Gabi (Juneau) 1:59.37. 7) Heaton, Cassidy (West Valley) 1:59.68. 8) Blackstone, Abby (Chugiak) 2:05.27.

200 IM -- 1) Lindquist, Tahna (Kodiak) 2:03.61 (new state record; old record 2:04.98, Tahna Lindquist, Kodiak, 2014 preliminaries). 2) Oakley, Madeleine (Dimond) 2:12.82. 3) Schoff, Amber (South) 2:13.14. 4) Taylor-Roth, Abigail (Juneau) 2:15.40. 5) Moore, Skylar (Sitka) 2:16.34. 6) Hanson, Olivia (Dimond) 2:16.90. 7) Williamson, Jessica (North Pole) 2:18.86. 8) Hamrick, Kaia (Juneau) 2:24.30.

50 freestyle -- 1) Hughes, Ila (Kodiak) 23.20 (new state record; old record 23.34, Maria Reeves, Lathrop, 1998). 2) Jennings, Emmie (Chugiak) 23.65. 3) Weeks, Alex (Soldotna) 23.93. 4) Kelly, Ciera (Juneau) 24.23. 5) Hampton, Alyssa (Dimond) 24.49. 6) Isaak, Dakota (Juneau) 24.63. 7) Sherrill, Ella (Ketchikan) 25.14. 8) Williams, Kendal (Dimond) 25.23.

1-meter diving -- 1) Stone, Jami (Eagle River) 474.70 (new state record; old record 463.45, Alaina Patterson, Chugiak, 1998). 2) Panting, Sierra (South) 398.40. 3) Wagner, Kendall (West) 392.60. 4) Heiberg, Tessa (Kodiak) 359.30. 5) Foster, Katelyn (Colony) 317.35. 6) Pitsch, Mikaela (Kenai) 313.60. 7) Laselle, Samantha (Palmer) 282.00. 8) McIntosh, Nicole (North Pole) 279.20.

100 butterfly -- 1) Kelly, Ciera (Juneau) 57.29. 2) Rohde, Arianna (Dimond) 58.85. 3) Ruffin, Mia (Juneau) 59.86. 4) Evershed, Elcee, HHS, 1:01.11. 5) Kito, Gabi (Juneau) 1:01.35. 6) English, Megan (Soldotna) 1:02.68. 7) Watson, Cassandra (South) 1:02.76. 8) McNelly, Riley (Valdez) 1:03.70.

100 freestyle -- 1) Hughes, Ila (Kodiak) 50.51 (new state record; old record 50.62, Ila Hughes, Kodiak, 2012). 2) Jennings, Emmie (Chugiak) 50.80. 3) Weeks, Alex (Soldotna) 53.24. 4) Bruce, Jordyn (Eagle River) 54.13. 5) Randall, Angie (West Valley) 54.84. 6) Sherrill, Ella (Ketchikan) 55.00. 7) Brockmann, Hannah (Thunder Mountain) 55.17. 8) Williams, Kendal (Dimond) 55.56.

500 freestyle -- 1) Lindquist, Tahna (Kodiak) 4:53.50 (new state record; old record 4:56.55, Kayla Meiergerd, Chugiak, 1998). 2) DeGeorge, Tara (West) 5:08.77. 3) Kinworthy, Sierra (Colony) 5:08.83. 4) Moody, Erin (Dimond) 5:13.12. 5) Heaton, Cassidy (West Valley) 5:17.55. 6) Blackstone, Abby (Chugiak) 5:26.94. 7) Sato, Ripple (Dimond) 5:27.08. 8) O’Brien, Kiera (Ketchikan) 5:27.40.

200 freestyle relay -- 1) Kodiak (Cummiskey, Lindquist, Horne, Hughes), 1:37.76. 2) Chugiak 1:38.11. 3) Juneau 1:38.13. 4) Dimond 1:41.41. 5) South 1:43.90. 6) West 1:45.77. 7) West Valley 1:45.86. 8) Colony 1:46.01.

100 backstroke -- 1) Burke, Samantha (Chugiak) 57.83. 2) Rohde, Arianna (Dimond) 58.43. 3) Schoff, Amber (South) 1:00.13. 4) Chappell, Eliza (Juneau) 1:01.10. 5) English, Megan (Soldotna) 1:02.47. 6) Kinworthy, Sierra (Colony) 1:02.50. 7) Watson, Cassandra (South) 1:04.21. 8) Hanson, Olivia (Dimond) 1:04.32.

100 breaststroke -- 1) Isaak, Dakota (Juneau) 1:06.41. 2) Ruffin, Mia (Juneau) 1:08.44. 3) Oakley, Madeleine (Dimond) 1:08.55. 4) Moore, Skylar (Sitka) 1:08.77. 5) Bruce, Jordyn (Eagle River) 1:09.27. 6) Taylor-Roth, Abigail (Juneau) 1:09.41. 7) McNelly, Riley (Valdez) 1:12.78. 8) Henry, Rachel (Soldotna) 1:13.35.

400 freestyle relay -- 1) Kodiak (Cummiskey, Lindquist, Horne, Hughes), 3:33.22. 2) Chugiak 3:36.56. 3) Dimond 3:42.78. 4) Juneau 3:44.18. 5) West Valley 3:48.03. 6) Soldotna 3:49.53. 7) Bartlett 3:51.13. 8) Ketchikan 3:55.85.

Boys team scores:

1) Dimond 110. 2) Kodiak 96. 3) Service 57. 4) Petersburg 50. 5) Thunder Mountain 46. 6) Colony 39. 7) Soldotna 35. 8) Eagle River 29. 9, Sitka 22. 10, West Valley 20. 10, South 20. 12) Lathrop 10. 13) Wasilla 9. 14) Chugiak 4. 15) Ketchikan 3. 15) Palmer 3. 17) North Pole 2.

Boys individual results:

200 medley relay -- 1) Kodiak (Lincoln, James, Anderson, Schauff), 1:37.28. 2) Dimond 1:38.20. 3) Thunder Mountain 1:38.60. 4) Eagle River 1:39.51. 5) Colony 1:39.94. 7) Sitka 1:43.86. 8) Petersburg 1:54.16.

200 freestyle -- 1) Summers, Michael (Dimond) 1:41.91. 2) O’Brien, Jarod (Dimond) 1:44.89. 3) Pate, Will (Sitka) 1:46.71. 4) Davis, Jorden (Thunder Mountain) 1:47.47. 5) James, Blake (Kodiak) 1:49.07. 6) Hall, Jacob (Soldotna) 1:49.25. 7) Alfano, Nathan (Dimond) 1:50.35. 8) Bloom, Zach (Colony) 1:51.01.

200 IM -- 1) Lindquist, Talon (Kodiak) 1:52.01 (new state record; old record 1:53.51, John Rogers, Lathrop, 1995). 2) Fox, Kenny (Thunder Mountain) 1:54.85. 3) Adams, Nathaniel (Service) 1:55.23. 4) Hanni, Jacob (Dimond) 1:58.35. 5) Anderson, Joseph (Colony) 1:58.36. 6) Emili, Ryan (South) 1:59.93. 7) Simmons, Jake (Colony) 2:00.17. 8) O’Donoghue, Tommy (West Valley) 2:01.28.

50 freestyle -- 1) Aulbach, Abel (Petersburg) 21.13. 2) Hogue-Corwin, EZ (Service) 21.37. 3) O’Brien, Thane (Thunder Mountain) 22.14. 4) Hall, David (Soldotna) 22.26. 5) Lai, Nathan (South) 22.31. 6) Watkins, Cody (Soldotna) 22.35. 7) Schauff, Nathan (Kodiak) 22.65. 8) Anderson, Jonas (Kodiak) 23.12.

1-meter diving -- 1) Schachle, Brayden, (Was), 462.95. 2) Desatoff, Austin (Dimond) 461.95. 3) Cambell, Zach (Lathrop) 461.75. 4) Knutson, Connor (South) 411.10. 5) Fugere, Shawn (Chugiak) 406.25. 6) Waldhaus, Gabe (Palmer) 395.75. 7) Lord, Colby (Colony) 373.70. 8) Ulatan, Ruben (Kodiak) 343.35.

100 butterfly -- 1) Fox, Kenny (Thunder Mountain) 50.33. 2) Fox-Icarro, Blaise (Eagle River) 53.24. 3) Alfano, Nathan (Dimond) 53.27. 4) Simmons, Jake (Colony) 53.91. 5) Watkins, Cody (Soldotna) 54.40. 6) Marsh, Evan (Petersburg) 54.45. 7) Anderson, Jonas (Kodiak) 54.58. 8) Nicholson, Ryan (West Valley) 54.67.

100 freestyle -- 1) Aulbach, Abel (Petersburg) 44.90 (new state record; old record 46.27, Derek Gibb, Petersburg, 1998). 2) Adams, Nathaniel (Service) 46.52. 3) Hogue-Corwin, EZ (Service) 46.76. 4) Schauff, Dyton (Kodiak) 48.15. 5) Lai, Nathan (South) 48.59. 6) Hall, David (Soldotna) 49.17. 7) McCord, Corbin (Ketchikan) 49.77. 8) Dittlinger, Reed (Dimond) 50.61.

500 freestyle -- 1) Summers, Michael (Dimond) 4:36.59. 2) Pate, Will (Sitka) 4:46.85. 3) Hanni, Jacob (Dimond) 4:49.98. 4) Davis, Jorden (Thunder Mountain) 4:54.73. 5) Suleimani, Alex (Lathrop) 4:56.84. 6) Rogers, Jonah (Service) 4:56.92. 7) Bloom, Zach (Colony) 5:00.82. 8) Hammersland, Logan (Ketchikan) 5:09.65.

200 freestyle relay -- 1) Kodiak (Lindquist, Schauff, James, Schauff), 1:26.71. 2) Service 1:27.59. 3) Dimond 1:28.62. 4) Petersburg 1:29.19. 5) Eagle River 1:29.53. 6) Soldotna 1:30.04. 7) South 1:30.60. 8) West Valley 1:31.55.

100 backstroke -- 1) Lindquist, Talon (Kodiak) 51.89. 2) Marsh, Evan (Petersburg) 52.50. 3) Lincoln, Nicholas (Kodiak) 53.40. 4) Dittlinger, Reed (Dimond) 54.00. 5) Schauff, Dyton (Kodiak) 54.41. 6) O’Donoghue, Tristan (West Valley) 54.72. 7) Jones, Trevor (Thunder Mountain) 55.57. 8) Harang, Brady (Sitka) 57.62.

100 breaststroke -- 1) Anderson, Joseph (Colony) 58.76. 2) O’Donoghue, Tommy (West Valley) 58.79. 3) O’Brien, Jarod (Dimond) 59.97. 4) James, Blake (Kodiak) 1:00.19. 5) Carpenter, Bryce (Eagle River) 1:00.80. 6) Creglow, Jacob (Soldotna) 1:00.85. 7) Hoen, Jack (Dimond) 1:01.50. 8) Cvancara, Luke (Dimond) 1:03.56.

400 freestyle relay -- 1) Dimond (Summers, Hanni, Alfano, O’Brien), 3:10.93. 2) Service 3:11.53. 3) Kodiak 3:15.49. 4) Petersburg 3:17.09. 5) Soldotna 3:19.31. 6) Colony 3:25.05. 7) Sitka 3:25.14. 8) North Pole 3:35.22.