
Six Haines Dolphins brought home best times and other accolades from 2019 Spring Southeast Champs swim meet in Juneau last weekend.
Winter Cheney, 8, Garrison Del Prete, 11, Rylee Sloan, 9, Lucia Chapell, 12, Sally Chapell, 14, and Pacific Ricke, 12, were among more than 160 swimmers from six Southeast towns to compete in the regional competition.
Cheney won the 25-yard freestyle race with a personal best time of 19.1 seconds. All six swimmers earned personal best times in their events and came home with medals placing in the top three of one or more events.
Del Prete earned Age Group Champ qualifying times in all nine of his events and received the “biggest drop” award for cleaving more than a minute from his 200-yard freestyle time. Ricke and Chapell placed second and third among 11- and 12-year old girls. Cheney placed fourth among boys 8-and-under. Chapell broke team records for her age group in the 50-, 100- and 200-yard butterfly events.
“Whether swimming a race for the first time or fifteenth time, this diverse group of athletes supported each other and were all smiles even after 25 hours on deck at the pool during the three day Juneau event,” head coach Jackie St. Clair said.
The swimmers will travel to Whitehorse at the end of the month for their last invitational meet of the season. Chapell and Ricke, the Dolphins’ two qualifiers, will travel to Anchorage to compete in the Alaska Junior Olympics State Championship on April 28, the fastest qualifying meet for swimmers under the age of 15.