Petersburg High Schools swimmers recorded some top-three finishes at an invitational meet in Juneau last weekend.The Vikings competed against teams from Juneau-Douglas, Thunder Mountain, Sitka and Ketchikan. The boys and girls teams were both fourth on Friday night and fifth on Saturday. The host Crimson Bears won for both boys and girls both nights.
On Friday, Peter Kowalski was 1st in the 200 free and Ethan Kludt-Painter took third in that event. Izabelle Ith was second in both the 50 free and the 100 backstroke. Maria Pfundt took second in the 100 butterfly. Van Abbott was first in both the 100 free and 100 breaststroke. Ben Higgins was second in the 500 free and Alyssa Guthrie was third in that event. Also the boys 200 free relay team of Britton Erickson, Abbott, Higgins and Rylan Wallace took second.
Then on Saturday, Erickson was third in both the 200 individual medley and the 100 breaststroke. Ith took second in the 100 free and 100 breaststroke. Mariah Taylor was third in the 100 breaststroke. Casey Evens was third in the 500 free and Abbott placed third in the 100 back.The boys 200 free relay team of Abbott, Erickson, Wallace and Higgins took second Saturday.
Coach Andy Carlisle was happy with his team’s performance after a couple hard weeks of practice. “We weren’t really looking for scores or anything, we were just swimming our best,” Carlisle said. “They did surprisingly well after the two weeks of training we had before. We beat ‘em up pretty good and I was really surprised at how well they did. Then on Saturday the boys probably would have been second or third but we DQ’d our winning relay at the end.”
That 400 free relay team was disqualified for an early start on the final exchange. By “beat ‘em up” Carlisle means he his having his team do some tough workouts in practice, which makes for tired muscles in competition. Carlisle said he’s also trying different events for swimmers. “Trying things out, seeing where people fit best,” he said, “trying different relay configurations. We probably would have finished higher on Friday, except I had kinds of different relays going.”
The teams are off from competition this weekend. The following Friday and Saturday, Juneau-Douglas and Ketchikan will come to town for the only home meet of the season September 30th and October 1st.
