Haines Dolphins swimmers took home medals, two team awards, and broke personal and team records at last weekend’s regional Southeast Champs swim meet in Ketchikan.
Pacific Ricke, 10, took first place in the girls 10 and under division. She earned seven gold medals, placing first in every event she swam. She broke all of her personal records and two team records. One of the team records was her own, the 500- meter free style. Ricke also broke Cassie Galasso’s 200 individual medley record set in 2005.
Emma Dohrn, 10, took second place in the girls 10 and under division. She earned three gold medals and four silver medals.
Rio Ross-Hirsh, 11, earned four bronze medals, one silver medal and one gold medal.
Lucia Chapell, 11, took home a bronze medal.
Dalton Henry, 10, won two bronze medals and a silver medal.
Hayden Jimenez, 10, and Leo Wald, 11, each shaved more than ten seconds off their personal best times.
Dohrn said she was just as proud of her team as her own successes.
“It was just fun having a good team going there,” Dohrn said. “It was not just about the awards, it was also about the team.”
Dolphins head coach Jackie St. Clair said her swimmers’ accomplishments are a good sign that they are continuing to improve.
“As a team we received the ‘Most Points per Swimmer’ award and the ‘Highest Percentage of Best Times’ Award, which was very exciting for everyone,” St. Clair said. “One highlight of this meet was how many Junior Olympic times the swimmers achieved.”
Junior Olympics, a statewide meet held in Anchorage in April, has harder qualifying times for entry.
“Many of these swimmers are in the bottom of the 11 to12 year old age bracket, or will soon age up into the 11-12-year-old age bracket, and so getting times can be challenging,” St. Clair said.
The Dolphins will swim at home in January competing against swimmers from Whitehorse and Juneau. They travel to Juneau in February for the Junior Olympics qualifier meet.
Chapell said she’s excited to train for the upcoming meets.
“Soon we’re going to have to start wearing tights again,” Chapell said. “We have to wear tights to create drag to get stronger. When you take them off it gets easier.”
Lucia Chapell- 3rd in the 100 butterfly
Emma Dohrn- 2nd in the 100 breaststroke, 200 IM, 100 IM, 500 free, 1st in the 100 freestyle, 50 backstroke, and 50 freestyle
Dalton Henry- 3rd in the 100 freestyle, and 50 breaststroke, 2nd in the 100 breaststroke.
Hayden Jimenez- dropped 12 seconds in his 100 IM
Pacific Ricke- 1st in the 100 backstroke, 100 breaststroke, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 200 IM, 500 freestyle, and 100 IM.
Rio Ross-Hirsh- 3rd in the 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 50 freestyle and 50 butterfly, 2nd in the 100 IM, and 1st in the 200 backstroke
Leo Wald- Dropped 18 seconds in his 200 freestyle and dropped 17 seconds in his 200 IM