The Glacier Swim Club just returned from Anchorage where it competed Feb. 17-19 in the 2023 Alaska Age Group Champs competition, bringing home a second place finish with them. Coach Scott Griffith said while it was a close finish, he was pleased to see great team effort from everyone involved, even newer swimmers to the team.
“We’re really happy we ended up with second place,” Griffith said. “We actually won it last year but when it’s Anchorage, those Anchorage teams are tough and they have a home field advantage and have all of their swimmers there, so it was pretty close for second. But overall we swam really impressively and had a bunch of new swimmers step it up, so it was a good meet.”
There were a total of 350 14-years-old and younger swimmers from 21 different teams. The following swimmers took home high point awards in their respective age groups:
— Cora Soboleff, tie for 3rd place high point in 10-year-old girls
— Levi Phelps, first-place 12-year-old boys
— Amy Liddle, first-place 13-year-old girls
— Avery Smith, third-place 13-year-old girls
— Valerie Peimann, first-place 14-year-old girls
— Lilly Francis, second-place 14-year-old girls
— Dannan Mills, third-place 14-year-old girls
Team records were broken by Mills, Peimann, Francis and Liddle for the ages 13 and 14 girls 200 yard medley relay and ages 13 and 14 girls 200 yard free relay. Griffith said breaking records is always something to be proud of and looks forward to seeing big things from the “powerful group of four girls.”
“Those four girls swam really well, for three relays they broke two of the team records,” Griffith said. “They’re getting really close to state records and the same group gets to swim again when we go to Seattle in March and then they’ll swim again at the end of the season in Anchorage. So, they’ve got two more shots to break team records and take a shot at state records, as well.”
GCS always competed in the IntraSquad Champs on Feb. 4-5 at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center. GSC divided up into 4 teams and competed against, including master swimmers, 84 swimmers in total. Teams were Geeky Geckos, Narwhals with Ill Intentions, Plucky Platypi and Chlorine Machine.
GCS also competed in the Alaska Senior Champs on Jan. 27-29 in Fairbanks. There were a total of 150 swimmers (mostly high school age) from 16 teams. GSC took first-place for girls and third-place overall. Peimann broke the team record in the 13-14 ages for girls 1000 yard free relay.
Griffith said the team is now in what they call the championship days of their season with only a handful of meets left before concluding in April. Next up, Griffith said the team will travel to Seattle for competitions where they bring fewer swimmers, but the nature of the meets is “higher level.”
“Starting on March 9 we have the Speedo Sectional meet at Federal Way, we’ll take four swimmers down there,” Griffith said. “Then the following weekend on March 16 we have the Northwest State sectional champs and we’ll probably take four swimmers to that. We have Western Zone region champs at the end of March, which we’ll take eight swimmers for. Then we have our two season-ending meets in the first week of April, it’s our Southeast champs in Juneau and then we finish our season with the Alaska State Swimming Championships in Anchorage during the last week of April.”
• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.
