Freshman Lucia Chapell placed first in the 100-yard butterfly at regionals to qualify for state. Chapell said she was on the edge lane for the race, so she could only see the person next to her.
Chapell said she watched the video of the race after she won. In the video, she said she saw that she was keeping up with the leaders for the first two lengths of the pool. Chapell said she started to fall behind on the beginning of the third length. She said her last turn was much quicker than everyone else’s. This allowed her to pull ahead of the leaders in the last 25 yards and win the race.
“I was really surprised,” she said. “I was going for a solid third. I didn’t quite believe the board that said I won. I was super excited and proud.”
Chapell said all her teammates gave her big hugs after the race. Freshman Camelia Bell said she was very proud of Chapell.
“I was screaming very loud at (her) during the race,” Bell said. “I gave her the biggest hug ever after the race because I was very proud of her.”
Chapell leaves for state on Nov.3. She said she’ll be focusing on her underwater dolphin kicks and breaking the water after her turns. She said she’s going to focus on setting a personal record, not placing.
Chapell will be competing at state from November 5-6. Preliminaries are on Friday, and finals are on Saturday.
Chapell was the only Haines athlete to qualify for state. Even though no one else qualified, everyone on the team set a personal record. The Dolphin’s 200-yard relay team also set a personal record by five seconds.