The Kenai Central swim team celebrated senior night by sweeping a tri meet with Soldotna and Valdez on Friday.
The Kenai girls scored 112 points to top the 110 of Soldotna and 44 of Valdez. The Kards boys rolled up 120 points to best the 98 of Valdez and 53 of Soldotna.
In a ceremony in the gym after the meet, Kenai Central honored seniors Julia Anderson, Grace Morrow, Rachael Pitsch, Cameron Prior, Brock Storms, Sorin Sorensen, Michal Hayes, Owen Rolph and Abigail Moffett.
Pitsch led the Kenai girls to the victory by snaring individual wins in the 200-yard freestyle and 100 butterfly.
A couple of SoHi swimmers also had big afternoons. Madison Snyder won the 200 IM and 100 backstroke, while Regan Evans took the 50 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. Both were involved in the Stars’ winning 200 medley relay, while Snyder also swam the winning 200 free relay.
Poulin and Rolph led the Kenai boys to victory. Poulin won the 200 IM and 100 butterfly, while Rolph took the 50 freestyle and 500 freestyle. Both also competed on the winning 400 freestyle relay team.
Kenai Tri Meet
GIRLS
Team scores: 1. Kenai, 112; 2. Soldotna, 110; 3. Valdez, 44.
200-yard medley relay — 1. Soldotna (Watkins, Evans, Snyder, Frederickson), 2 minutes, 6.98 seconds; 2. Kenai, 2:14.31; 3. Valdez, 2:14.66.
200 freestyle — 1. Rachael Pitsch, Ken, 2:11.62; 2. Jessica Wilcox, Sol, 2:31.01; 3. Rhain Osburn, Val, 2:43.22.
200 IM — 1. Madison Snyder, Sol, 2:27.46; 2. Grace Morrow, Ken, 2:50.80; 3. Madison McDonald, Ken, 2:50.97.
50 freestyle — 1. Regan Evans, Sol, 26.86; 2. Julia Anderson, Ken, 27.81; 3. Tirzah Frederickson, Sol, 29.23.
100 butterfly — 1. Rachael Pitsch, Ken, 1:14.50; 2. Evelyn Wilcox, Sol, 1:30.23; 3. Emma Snyder, Sol, 1:30.63.
100 freestyle — 1. Billi Lovell, Val, 58.46; 2. Tirzah Frederickson, Sol, 1:04.44; 3. Grace Morrow, Ken, 1:04.89.
500 freestyle — 1. Charisma Watkins, Sol, 6:27.30; 2. Madison McDonald, Ken, 6:30.53; 3. Maria Anderson, Ken, 6:44.61.
200 freestyle relay — 1. Soldotna (Snyder, Frederickson, Wilcox, Evans), 1:54.86; 2. Valdez, 1:57.72; 3. Kenai, 1:58.40.
100 backstroke — 1. Madison Snyder, Sol, 1:08.05; 2. Julia Anderson, Ken, 1:12.26; 3. Blythe Ditman, Val, 1:13.42.
100 breaststroke — 1. Regan Evans, Sol, 1:18.15; 2. Charisma Watkins, Sol, 1:27.03; 3. Caitlyn Martin, Ken, 1:32.58.
400 freestyle relay — 1. Kenai (Gross, McDonald, Anderson, Moffett), 4:53.33; 2. Kenai, 5:15.59.
BOYS
Team scores: 1. Kenai, 120; 2. Valdez, 98; 3. Soldotna, 53.
200 medley relay — 1. Valdez (Silveira, Prevost, Randall, Shirk), 1:46.71; 2. Kenai, 1:49.36; 3. Kenai, 2:03.27.
200 freestyle — 1. Samuel Anderson, Ken, 2:02.16; 2. Isiah Silveira, Val, 2:04.20; 3. Nikita Monyahan, Sol, 2:05.19.
200 IM — 1. Koda Poulin, Ken, 2:09.99; 2. Jeffrey Prevost, Val, 2:13.46; 3. Sorin Sorensen, Ken, 2:21.16.
50 freestyle — 1. Owen Rolph, Ken, 23.60; 2. Nathan Pitka, Sol, 24.49;3. Piers Shirk, Val, 24.71.
100 butterfly — 1. Koda Poulin, Ken, 56.06; 2. Chase Randall, Val, 59.00; 3. Nathan Pitka, Sol, 1:09.24.
100 freestyle — 1. Isiah Silveira, Val, 53.90; 2. John Wright, Ken, 55.09; 3. Tristen Reese, Sol, 57.00.
500 freestyle — 1. Owen Rolph, Ken, 5:26.59; 2. Nikita Monyahan, Sol, 5:42.76; 3. Fisher Mishmash, Val, 5:48.55.
200 freestyle relay — 1. Valdez (Silveira, Shirk, Prevost, Mishmash), 1:37.53; 2. Kenai, 1:42.63; 3. Soldotna, 1:56.76.
100 backstroke — 1. Chase Randall, Val, 1:00.77; 2. Samuel Anderson, Ken, 1:01.76; 3. Piers Shirk, Val, 1:03.38.
100 breaststroke — 1. Jeffrey Prevost, Val, 1:05.78; 2. John Wright, Ken, 1:14.83; 3. Liam Roosma, Val, 1:17.33.
400 freestyle relay — 1. Kenai (Rolph, Poulin, Sorensen, Wright), 3:35.69; 2. Valdez, 4:00.95; 3. Kenai, 4:05.44.
Story breaks 2 school records
With no spectators and only two teams filling the Kate Kuhns Aquatic Center on Friday, one might not have guessed history was being made, but Homer’s Madison Story quietly broke two school records in the dual meet.
One of those records was her mom’s.
Story swam through Homer High School’s previous 200-yard freestyle record, set in 1999, with a time of 1 minute, 58.01 seconds. She also broke the record set by her mother Corise (Bittner) Story in 1992 for the 100-yard backstroke, with a time of 59.05.
Story picked up two individual wins in the 200-yard freestyle, and the 100-yard backstroke during the Friday matchup with the Seahawks. It was the first varsity meet in the Kate Kuhns Aquatic Center of the season, and the first meet of the season for the Homer team.
Homer was the only school to enter a team in the 400-yard freestyle relay, with Carly Nelson, Adeline Berry, Delta Fabich and Story swimming a time of 4:03.83.
The Homer girls won the meet with 126 points, to the Seward girls’ 34, while the Seward boys topped Homer 76 points to 23.
Homer’s Carly Nelson nabbed first place in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 57.88. Berry snagged two second place finishes in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 27.22, and the 100-yard butterfly in 1:05.37.
Winning the 50-yard freestyle was Seward’s Mia Nappi with a time of 27.18. In addition to winning the 100-yard butterfly in 1:03.95, Seward’s Lydia Jacoby also picked up a first place win in the 200-yard individual medley in 2:19.17.
For the boys, Seward’s Paxton Hill won both the 50-yard and the 100-yard freestyle, while his teammate Bengimin Ambrosiani won the 200-yard freestyle, his brother Nickolas Ambrosiani won the 200-yard individual medley and Seward’s Peter Spanos won the 100-yard backstroke.
Homer’s Lucas Nollar picked up the sole win for the Mariner boys in the 100-yard breaststroke, with a time of 1:18.82.
Homer head coach Caleb Miller said, given the months the team has gone without practice due to COVID-19 precautions and limitations at the pool, he was impressed with what he saw Friday.
“For me, coming off of six months and no swimming, that’s really hard to predict where that’s going to go,” Miller said. “I think the training’s been really good, so I kind of knew going in that we would be OK. … I think the kids have met or exceeded by expectations at this point.”
He said he thought the meet — which had no spectators and more strict rules for open pool time and competitor movements — ran smoothly.
“I think there’s been a lot of thought and a lot of work by a lot of people to kind of come up with these plans,” Miller said. “And so for us to be able to move into this seamlessly, it gives credit to the people that are planning and making plans. Overall I think the meet went really, really well.”
Homer is set to host two more invitationals this season, and they’ll both be duals. The team will be away next week in Seward, where a total of three teams will compete.
Miller said smaller meets can be helpful to the teams in terms of developing a different kind of competitiveness.
“I appreciate the dual because I just think that it brings a little more intimacy to the races,” he said.
Girls team scores
1. Homer, 126; 2. Seward, 34
Individual events
200 yard medley relay: 1. Homer High School, 1:56.41; 2. Homer High School, 2:27.24; 3. Homer High School, 2:33.10
200 yard freestyle: 1. Madison Story (Homer), 1:58.01; 2. Olivia Overdorf (Homer), 2:31.62
200 yard individual medley: 1. Lydia Jacoby (Seward), 2:19.17; 2. Carly Nelson (Homer), 2:25.72; 3. Hannah Overdorf (Homer), 2:38.52; 4. Hazel Pearson (Homer), 2:45.03
50 yard freestyle: 1. Mia Nappi (Seward), 27.18; 2. Adeline Berry (Homer), 27.22; 3. Elsa Milne (Homer), 28.87; 4. Briar Boyd (Homer), 30.06
100 yard butterfly: 1. Lydia Jacoby (Seward), 1:03.95; 2. Adeline Berry (Homer), 1:05.37; 3. Olivia Overdorf (Homer), 1:26.01
100 yard freestyle: 1. Carly Nelson (Homer), 57.88; 2. Mia Nappi (Seward), 59.90; 3. Bristol Johnson (Homer), 1:08.90; 4. Delta Fabich (Homer), 1:19.93
500 yard freestyle: 1. Kylie Mullaly (Seward), 6:19.52
200 yard freestyle relay: 1. Homer High School (Milne, Johnson, H. Overdorf, Brenna Cox), 2:02.19; 2. Homer High School (Pearson, Boyd, O. Overdorf, Hadley Glidden), 2:14.02
100 yard backstroke: 1. Madison Story (Homer), 59.05; 2. Hannah Overdorf (Homer), 1:12.26; 3. Bristol Johnson Homer), 1:14.51; 4. Delta Fabich (Homer), 1:17.04; 5. Brenna Cox (Homer), 1:42.52100 yard breaststroke: 1. Kylie Mullaly (Seward), 1:21.32; 2. Hazel Pearson (Homer), 1:22.12; 3. Elsa Milne (Homer), 1:26.82; 4. Briar Boyd (Homer), 1:28.13
400 yard freestyle relay: 1. Homer High School (Story, Nelson, Berry, Fabich), 4:03.83
Boys team scores
1. Seward, 76; 2. Homer, 23
Individual events
200 yard medley relay: 1. Seward High School, 1:55.06
200 yard freestyle: 1. Bengimin Ambrosiani (Seward), 2:10.04; 2. Peter Spanos (Seward), 2:15.25
200 yard individual medley: 1. Nickolas Ambrosiani (Seward), 2:33.18; 2. Hunter Fry (Homer), 2:33.87; 3. Lucas Nollar (Homer), 2:36.14
50 yard freestyle: 1. Paxton Hill (Seward), 24.27; 2. Jackson Bird (Seward), 25.34; 3. Emmet Wilkinson (Homer), 26.29
100 yard freestyle: 1. Paxton Hill (Seward), 55.59; 2. Bengimin Ambrosiani (Seward), 58.96; 3. Hunter Fry (Homer), 59.68
500 yard freestyle: 1. Jackson Bird (Seward), 5:53.13
200 yard freestyle relay: 1. Seward High School (Spanos, B. Ambrosiani, Hill, N. Ambrosiani), 1:43.45
100 yard backstroke: 1. Peter Spanos (Seward), 1:09.20; 2. Nickolas Ambrosiani (Seward), 1:10.80
100 yard breaststroke: 1. Lucas Nollar (Homer), 1:18.82; 2. Emmet Wilkinson (Homer), 1:19.05
The Homer-Seward report was contributed by Megan Pacer at mpacer@homernews.com.
