With their home Sequim Aquatic Recreation Center closed, the Lady Wolves swim team is forging ahead to districts with a large crew this weekend.
Head coach Anita Benitez said she’s taking 16 girls to the West Central District 3 Swimming Championships on Nov. 7 at Hazen High School.
While not all of the girls will be swimming, she said the group represents those with the skills and dedication to the team throughout the season.
“Many girls, performance-wise, have broken their own personal best almost every time they’ve swam,” Benitez said.
Three girls are definitely swimming both individual and relay events after qualifying throughout the season, including Victoria Fitzpatrick and Sydnee Linnane each swimming four events and Jessica Craig swimming three.
Fitzpatrick, who qualified in seven events will swim the 100 free (1:02.80) and the 100 fly (1:09.42) and two relays. Linnane qualified in seven events, too, and will swim the 50 free (27.55) and 100 backstroke (1:08.84) and two relays. Jessica Craig qualified in the 200 IM (2:46.40) and two relays.
While their times are close, Benitez said none of the girls on the team has reached state qualifying times.
However, Benitez said after the girls learned that SARC likely would close sooner than expected, it lit a fire in the girls.
“We had one of our best meets after we found out the pool is closing,” she said.
“It’s motivated them to say, hey, we’re a team and we need a place to practice.”
Community members recently donated enough funds for SARC to keep the pool open through the 2A State finals so that the team can practice. What’s ahead for the Wolves’ boys swim team is unknown.
Wildcards
Benitez and assistant coach Mark Pincikowski said they expect Sequim to wild card into state in a few places such as Fitzpatrick in the 100 fly and Linnane in the 100 backstroke.
“We’re going into districts with better times or times they got at districts last year,” Benitez said.
Last year, Linnane swam the 100 backstroke at state placing 19th and she, Fitzpatrick and Craig swam with the 200 medley team placing 22nd but did not make the finals.
This year, they’ll swim the 200 medley with Stephanie Grow at a joint best time of 2:10.47.
The 200 free relay team swimming at districts consists of Fitzpatrick, Grow, Jaycee Thompson-Porrazzo and Linnane (1:56.66) and the 400 free relay is Craig, Thompson-Porrazzo, Annie Armstrong and Joie Darminio (4:46.17).
Four more girls hope to earn a wildcard spot into various events after being on the cusp of a district-qualifying time within a second or two. They include Armstrong in the 100 fly (1:21.36), Carmen Wilwert in the 100 breaststroke (1:26.47), Darminio in the 100 breaststroke (1:25.63) and Thompson-Porrazzo in the 200 IM (2:53.64).
Benitez also selected Wilwert, Angela Carrillo-Burge, Annie Armstrong, Heidi Schmitt, Aubree Young and Sarin Rees as relay alternates while teammates Holly Eiland, Madeline Patterson and Kaitlyn Davis were chosen to attend for their dedication to the team. Jasmine Itti had qualified in four events for districts and was on the cusp of two more but was injured late in the season.
As a team, Sequim finished 3-4 on the season.
Pincikowski said the girls this year saw improvement and continued individual and team success because many of them have been working on their overall techniques from the basic strokes to body posture to starts and turns throughout high school.
“Many of the girls are cutting time on turns and starts and we’re seeing the benefit of having them for four years,” he said.
