Haines Dolphin swimmer Lucia Chapell faced “the fastest people in Alaska,” she said, last weekend at the Alaska Senior Championships in Fairbanks. Chapell, a sophomore at Haines High School, competed against swimmers from 15 teams all over the state, finaling in three events and breaking four personal records.
Chapell finished eighth in the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter backstroke and ninth in the 100-meter backstroke. The winning combined team title for men and women went to Anchorage’s Northern Lights Swim Club. Chugiak Aquatics Club took second, Juneau’s Glacier Swim Club finished third.
“The qualifying times are quite fast. This is a meet that most of the fastest people at the state really train for and go to, so I had to work hard to even make it into the finals,” Chapell said. “I don’t really get that sort of competition (here) so it’s really good for me to go to a big meet like this with a lot of faster people who push me.”
Chapell was the only swimmer from Haines to attend the meet, traveling without her coach, Sydney Wray. Chapell was adopted by Sitka’s Baranof Barracudas for the day, coached by Kevin Knox.
“I’ve coached Lucia a couple of times now at swim meets where her coach couldn’t come with her,” Knox said. “She’s a really fun swimmer to coach. She loves swimming and loves to be there competing. That’s a really fun athlete to coach. I always enjoy having her join our team, frankly my swimmers do too.”
Barracuda swimmer Mia Turner told the Sitka Sentinel that swimming with Chapell was the highlight of her meet.
“Man, she was cheering with us at our lane, and she was cheering for all our swimmers. And we made sure to get our whole team behind her lane to cheer for her,” Turner said to the Sitka Sentinel. “She was here by herself, that was probably really scary for her, since I can’t imagine going to a meet with a different team and having nobody you know there. So we all became really close.”
Chapell said one of Knox’s suggestions helped her shed time off her 100-meter butterfly in the finals.
Chapell also shaved two seconds off her 200-meter backstroke in the preliminaries, a difficult achievement for a sprint, she said.
“That was pretty exciting,” Chapell said. “It made me happy with that swim.”
The Haines Dolphins’ next meet is the Southeast Championships in Juneau, March 31-April 2.
“We definitely have a busy 10 weeks to go,” Wray said. “Lots of swimmers getting back into the water after basketball and wrestling. We will have a busy few weeks to jump back into the pool, feel good and start tapering.”
Wray said this year was a “growing year for the team,” as enrollment numbers have dwindled from years past. There were 30-40 dolphins this year, Wray said, compared to 90 swimmers last year.
Wray believes part of this downsize can be attributed to USA Swimming shifting to SWIMS 3.0, a new registration database that requires parents to register their children online. In previous years, registration was handled by the team’s board members.
“I’m not discouraged,” Wray said. “Once everybody is registered they figure out it’s easy to renew it. It’s just going to be a blip. It’s always hard when things change and are new and different. Once everybody figures out the new rollout it will make things easier.”
Joining the swim team can also be a time commitment, Wray said, rivaling other after school opportunities. Swimmers commit to a nine month season with three to five practices a week. Another factor of lower attendance, Wray speculates, is this year’s increase in prices. The program had not increased prices since its first year. Scholarship funds are available to parents that need them, Wray said.
The Haines Dolphins will host their end of year “swimboree” in March, the date still to be determined. Swimmers receive financial pledges for each lap they swim at the fundraiser. Wray said the team “would not have gotten through this year” without the support of the community.
“It’s been a rough transitional time but I want everyone to know how much we love the pool and swimming,” Wray said. “I firmly believe in this program and what it does for the kids. You watch the kids be timid at first and then learn they love to race. It’s a really cool thing to watch.”