Don’t plan on swimming Friday night or Saturday afternoon at Augustus Brown Swimming Pool.
There’ll be Wolves, Falcons and Crimson Bears thrashing through the water.
The Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain High School swim and diving teams’ first two meets are Friday and Saturday at the downtown pool. Sitka, Ketchikan and Petersburg will also be in attendance.
The Friday meet starts at 6 p.m. while the Saturday meet begins at 2 p.m. It’s the first of four dual meets this season before the Region V championships in Juneau in late October.
The JDHS girls and TMHS boys placed first at last year’s regional meet. The two Juneau teams went on to win a combined three relays in the ASAA/First National Bank Alaska State Swimming Championships.
The Crimson Bears girls team finished second and Falcons boys third at the final meet.
Senior Andyn Mulgrew-Truitt and junior Cameron Howard remain from the state-winning JDHS relays this season. However, all four legs of TMHS’ 200 medley relay will be back in the water this year.
“They’re pretty determined to crush some state records in relay events and take second or first at state this year,” TMHS coach Josiah Loseby said of his boys team.
Bergen Davis, Noatak Post, Spencer Holt and Chris Ray — all then-sophomores — helped the Falcons rise just above Soldotna in the final standings, 62-61, for third place at the state meet.
The Fab Four are moving on to the next challenge.
“Looking at the times they have and the records that are set already — even if they’re not fully swimming at their highest potential at that state meet — they’re still going to crush the state record in at least one of those relays,” Loseby said.
High school swimming sanctions three relays: the 200 medley, 200 freestyle and 400 freestyle.
Over in the Juneau-Douglas waters, Mulgrew-Truitt, one of only three seniors on the team, has three goals for the season: improve her times, narrow down her college search and enjoy the team.
“We’re all pretty much family,” Mulgrew-Truitt said of the team. “I’ve been swimming with pretty much all these guys since I was 5.”
The senior’s even befriended some of her Southeast competition. Last season, Mulgrew-Truitt and Sitka pal Whitney McArthur were rivals in the 50-yard freestyle. McArthur finished 0.01 seconds ahead of Mulgrew-Truitt in the event at regionals before they tied one another in the 50 freestyle at the state meet for third place.
“We laughed about it,” the JDHS senior said. “We just agreed this year not to tie.”
Sophia Puliafico and Eric Schumacher are the only other seniors on the Crimson Bears this season.
Under third-year head coach Seth Cayce, the Crimson Bears girls team have not lost at regions. The boys team, however, hasn’t won it in that time.
Still, there’s not a lot of pouting at the Crimson Bears practice these days — boys included.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a group collectively work as hard which is kind of cool,” Cayce said.
Cayce’s team is heavy with juniors, who along with the seniors, set a good example for the rest of the team.
“We’ve had some really good practices this year which is awesome,” he added. “That’s nothing against other years, it’s just they’re really working their butts off this year.”
The diving team resurfaced last year for both programs. Cayce and Loseby both said they were glad to see diving make a comeback last season. Nathan Teal coaches a joint JDHS-TMHS diving team.
The state tournament — hosted at the Dimond Park Aquatic Center last year — will be at Bartlett High School Nov. 3-4.
Region V Meet Schedule
Sept. 1 &2 Juneau
Sept. 15 &16 at Ketchikan
Sept. 29 &30 at Petersburg
Oct. 13 &14 at Sitka
Oct. 27 &28 Region V Championships (Juneau)
Nov. 3 &4 State at Anchorage
• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nolin.ainsworth@juneauempire.com.
