There’s something ironic about the Lady Wolves swim’s skill level this year — they’re deep.

Head coach Anita Benitez announced this week she is sending eight girls to the West Central Districts 1A/2A swim championships. Sequim’s Isa Benitez, Joie Darmino, Sonja Govertsen, Jasmine Itti, Sydnee Linnane, Anna Miehe, Sydney Swanson and Meguire Vander Velde will compete Nov. 4-5 at Hazen High School for a shot at state.

What they’ll be swimming still is to be determined, Benitez said because girls continue to cut times.

The girls could be chosen to swim any one of four events including one of the three relays.

Govertsen achieved the most district times in eight events while German-exchange student Miehe qualified in seven. Darminio qualified in six events including the 200 free, 100 fly and 100 breast and so did Vander Velde, including the 200 free and 500 free.

Linnane qualified for five events while Isa Benitez, Itti and Swanson qualified in four each.

Several more girls swam on relay teams that qualified for districts, too, but due to the limit of the number of girls who can compete per event, only the eight girls listed will compete at districts unless an alternate is needed. They are Annie Armstrong, Angela Carrillo-Burge, Alyssa Garrett, Stephanie Grow and Jaycee Thompson-Porrazzo.

Last year, Linnane was the only girl to compete at the 2A state championships where she swam a personal best in the 100 backstroke at 1:08.02.

This year she’s swimming a little over a second off that time but understandably so.

Linnane said about six months ago doctors discovered blockage in her heart leading them to install a pacemaker.

“It’s set me back,” she said.

“My heart beats faster and I had to get used to long-distances.”

Now she’s taking breaks at practice and training for shorter periods of time.

Swimming the 200 free relay and the 100 backstroke is tough, she says, because they’re back-to-back but she’s optimistic for the team going forward. Linnane will serve as one of the Wolves’ captains next season as a senior.

“We’re a lot faster,” she said.

“(The team) just trains a lot more and they have a lot of experience.”

One difference-maker for the Wolves this season has been Miehe, who is spending the school year in Sequim from Hannover, Germany. She’s been swimming since the third grade.

“I love it here,” she said. “I like the team, the people and the pool is cool. The coaches are nice, too.”

She’s set the goal to make it to state and has found her times being much faster than in Germany.

“In Germany, it was the 200 meter breaststroke but here it’s the 100 meter,” she said.

“We also have 50 meter lanes in Germany and here it’s 25 meters. I’m way faster here than in Germany.”

Last Chance Meet

A few of the Wolves qualified in additional events at the Last Chance Meet on Oct. 25 in Port Angeles, while several girls cut times overall.

Vander Velde qualified for districts in the 200 free (2:22.95) and 500 free (6:26.50) and Darminio did so too in the 100 fly (1:14.19).

Miehe cut time in the 200 free (2:16.98) to qualify and Goversten cut closer to state times in the 50 free (26.48) and 100 free (1:01.06). The 200 free relay cut 1/10 of a second too (1:50.43) with Govertsen, Itti, Linnane and Miehe.

Other girls swimming personal bests include Angela Carrillo-Burge going half a second faster in the 200 free, Jaycee Thompson-Porrazzo half a second faster in the 200 IM, Aubree Young cutting 2 seconds in the 200 IM and 1 second in the 100 breaststroke, Stephanie Grow cutting half a second in the 50 free, Eva Lofstrom cutting half a second in the 50 free and 1 second in the 100 free, Carmen Wilwert 1 second in the 50 free, Regan DeMetz cutting half a second in the 50 free and Madeline Patterson 1/10 of a second in the 50 free.

Also, Bailey Cauffman cutting 1 second in the 50 free, Annie Armstrong cutting 5 seconds in the 100 butterfly, 2 seconds in the 100 backstroke and half a second from her portion of the 200 free, and Heidi Schmitt cutting 1 second in the 100 breaststroke.

Assistant coach Mark Pincikowski said at the meet Sequim was consistently in the top two heats and other teams commended them for being vocal supporters.

“This is the most well-rounded team I’ve had,” he said.

“We’re seeing the benefits of freshmen swimmers who did club teams and the benefits of six years of building this program.”

Team co-captain Stephanie Grow said she’s seen a big progression from her co-captain Thompson-Porrazzo’s freshmen year.

“Now we have three relays with at least two teams qualifying for districts,” she said.